Slaney Sharks Swim Club

Enjoyed swimming this long, hot summer? Why stop now?

✨ 𝗢𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝘁𝗵𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝘀 ✨

Irish swimming stars Mona McSharry, Ellen Walshe, and Danielle Hill are coming together once again to host a series of swim clinics designed to inspire the next wave of young athletes!

The clinics are open to all club athletes from aged 8-17.

With less than one week to go until the first clinic, spaces are filling up fast!

📍 Douglas, Cork (new location added)
📍 Askeaton (Few spots remaining)
📍 New Ross, Wexford (Few spots remaining)
📍 Templeogue (Limited availability)
📍 Tuam (Limited availability)
📍 Sligo (sold out)

Book now 🔗 https://ow.ly/LSGf50ZyQPN

Don't forget the 11th Sept!

Enjoyed swimming this long, hot summer? Why stop now?

Day 3 Thursday: Romy’s Day
50m Backstroke A strong swim, just half a second off her PB, and a perfect loosener ahead of one of the blue riband events later, the 100m Freestyle.
100m Freestyle: She added a bit of time in the morning qualifier, but set a blistering 1:03.26 in the evening B Final, dropping 0.66 seconds for a brand new PB. Great swimming!

Day 4 Friday: Luke and Romy.
Luke arrived today for the 50m breaststroke. He swam well, recorded a new PB, but unfortunately missed out on a B Final by a few hundredths of a second. A tough way to miss out, but he plans to be back next year, faster and with ambitions to race a few more events.

Meanwhile, Romy continued working through her busy programme. She came very close to her PB in the 200m backstroke before producing a superb 31.95 in the 50m butterfly, taking just over half a second off her previous best—a huge improvement over a single length of the pool. The swim also earned her a place in another B Final, her third of the Championships, where she matched her qualifying time exactly with another excellent performance.

Unfortunately, Sarah had to withdraw from the 50m butterfly through injury. A real disappointment, as she has been swimming very well in training and is a superb exponent of butterfly.

Day 5 Saturday: Romy’s Day again.
100m Backstroke. A little off her best, but after such a busy few days that’s understandable. She can be very proud of her weeks work. Three B Finals (only two were raced) and three PBs. A brilliant return for all the work she’s put in.

Huge thanks to the organisers for a fantastic event. I’m only sorry to have made it up for one day. Hopefully I’ll make a couple more next year. It’s always impressive to see so many dedicated and respectful young athletes competing at such a high level. Irish records fell yesterday, which tells you everything about the standard on display. The future of the sport in Ireland is in very good hands.

And a massive appreciation to all the volunteers. With the 9 am starts and evening finishes, it’s an incredibly long day and week, and their commitment keeps everything running smoothly.

A special shout out to race commentator Andrew Bree. The enthusiasm he maintains, the clarity of his race breakdowns, calling splits mid race, and keeping pace with swimmers moving at that speed is genuinely impressive. His work all week adds so much to the atmosphere of the occasion for both spectators and competitors.

Thanks also to Nicky for coming up every day. Your steady presence means a lot to our swimmers. Hopefully next year we’ll have more athletes involved and continue building the strong team spirit that’s already emerging. With our younger swimmers coming through, as we saw in Limerick a few weeks ago and at other galas this year, the signs are very positive.

Enjoy the break, everyone — especially Romy, Jackie and Nicky. See you all in the new term.

Two days of racing done so far.

Word is the Sharks are going great, although PBs have been hard to come by. I wonder if the atmospherics and water temperature play a part—I'll have to look into that.

Róise has now completed her programme, swimming the 200m butterfly yesterday and the 1500m freestyle today. While there were no PBs this time, finishing 13th and 9th overall in her age group is a fine achievement.

Romy got her busy schedule under way yesterday with an excellent 200m freestyle, taking half a second off her previous best.

Today, both Romy and Sarah raced the 50m freestyle. Both broke the 30-second barrier, finished within a whisker of their personal bests, and bettered their seeding going into the race.

Romy has another busy day tomorrow before being joined again on Friday by Sarah, when Luke will make his appearance at the Championships.

Roise and Romy have arrived and are ready for the mornings action - here with Sophia from Tigers Swim Club in Jersey. Sophia and her brother occasionally join the Sharks training when they're in Ireland and have raced for us in the past too.

Best of luck everyone.

It all kicks off tomorrow.

The best Irish age-group and senior swimmers, along with a strong contingent of international teams, will arrive fit, tapered and ready for five days of elite racing at the NAC. Among them will be four of our A Squad swimmers.

To the team, I'd like to say this: you deserve to be there every bit as much as anyone else. You earned your qualification time through hard work and commitment. Every 5 a.m. alarm on dark winter mornings, every double training day, every tough set Nicky wrote up, every gym session. This season you've battled storms, icy mornings and even rising floodwaters just to make it to training. You put in the work that has brought you to the starting blocks. Your times have come down, and you are ready.

Of course, no one gets there entirely alone. You've had the support of your teammates, those who qualified alongside you and those who narrowly missed out this year. You've shared the early morning groans, swimming the sleep out of yourselves at 6 a.m. You've pushed each other through the hard sessions and laughed together afterwards. Your coaches have guided you every step of the way, and your parents have got you to training sessions and competitions. It all leads to this moment.

This week you will race for yourselves. Trust the work you've done, embrace the opportunity, and give it everything you have. That's all anyone can ask. Whatever happens, you should be incredibly proud of what you have already achieved—we certainly are, and we'll be behind you every stroke of the way.

In what is becoming a bit of a tradition, the team had an opportunity to begin their taper for race week with a visit to Peak Performance Recovery. There they enjoyed some hot and cold therapy and a wonderfully relaxing and beneficial 30 minutes in the compression boots—once the preserve of fighter pilots.

By sheer good luck, the team's time at Peak Performance overlapped with the end of a photoshoot for 'Silver Fox Health' magazine, and the swimmers were treated to endless pearls of wisdom and sporting advice.

Róise is first up tomorrow morning in the 200m butterfly. It's her first time swimming at the Senior National Championships, but she's a very experienced competitor and won't be fazed by all the extra razzmatazz that comes with the event. Romy, Sarah and Luke have been here before, but that doesn't mean there won't be nerves.

Best of luck again, everyone. We'll be following your progress with great interest, and I'll post updates as soon as I can. Keep an eye on the news for reports too.