Meet Report: 2012 Cranny Halloween Swim Festival
The 2012 Cranny Halloween Swim Festival was a huge success for GSC swimmers.
Like last year, the gala, held on 27 October, was divided into two parts. The morning session was a 50’s meet for the U9/10’s while the afternoon session was reserved for the Open 200’s meet which was in a Heat Declared Winner format.
The GSC team was in fine form, achieving 53 podium places.
In the first half of the day, the 50’s meet which was in a heats & finals format, proved to be an excellent warm up for the day and an opportunity for the younger club swimmers from Galway SC and other clubs to enjoy the experience of competing.
In the U9 age group, there were top performances in the first event of the day, the 50 Backstroke, with Emma Kennelly winning her first gold of the day.
In the U10 girls, Keela Mulhall won the gold in her event with a third place finish for Allanah Blacoe and a finalist place finish for Isabelle Gibbs.
The boys 50m backstroke event also brought strong performances with Zak Rather taking the silver in the U10 category, while Tom O’Sullivan (U9), and Rory Melody (U10) both made finals in the event.
Galway girls and boys took more podium places in the 50m breaststroke event with Emma Kennelly claiming a silver medal in the U9 category, while Isabelle Gibbs came second in the U10 age group. There were finalist places for Alison Gibbs (U9) and Jennifer Holland and Allanah Blacoe (U10).
Tom O’Sullivan won bronze in the U9 boys category while Zak Rather won his second medal of the day with a silver in the U10 age group.
In the 50 Butterfly, there was no stopping the trio of Emma Kennelly, Allanah Blacoe and Keela Mulhall who continued their winning form: Emma Kennelly came second in the U9 event, while Allanah and Keela came second and third respectively in the U10 age group.
Tom O’Sullivan kept up the winning streak for the boys with a bronze medal in the U9 50m fly event, while Zak Rather took the U10 silver, with Dave Doorly making the final and finishing just outside the medals.
In the last 50’s event of the afternoon, the 50m freestyle, Emma Kennelly (U9) took home another gold for Galway while Keela Mulhall took silver in the U10 category, while there was a fifth place finish in the final for Allanah Blacoe.
In the U9 boys, Tom O’Sullivan came in second, while Zak Rather and Rory Melody both made the finals in the U10 category, finishing off a very successful morning of swimming for Galway Swimming Club.
With special appearances from Galway City Mayor Terry O’Flaherty, Galway Bay FM’s sports presenter Ollie Turner and Galway Sports Partnerships Jason Craughwell who all presented the medals & finalist awards, it made the whole experience for the all younger swimmers competing a very special one.
The afternoon session of 200’s had much to live up to after the impressive performances that the 50’s meet had produced in the morning.
But the Galway girls and boys started the first event with a bang with 11 medals won in the 200 backstroke event.
In the girls U12 category, Sinead Carey got the 200’s off to a great start, finishing second in her first event. Kate Finn and Kate Kavanagh carried on the winning performances in the U14 category, with a second and third podium place respectively.
The U16 girls claimed a further two podium places with a gold medal for Keena Walsh and a silver for Ruth Keogh while Ellen Leahy claimed another silver medal for Galway in the U17 event.
In the boys 200 Backstroke, there were podium places for the U14 boys with Bryan O’Sullivan taking the gold in the event and Conor Snowdon taking silver.
David O’Sullivan took gold in the U16 event while setting a new new Connacht U19/Senior record in the 200 Backstroke with a time of 2.07.31.
It was left to Cian Duffy and Kevin McGlade to bring in the last two backstroke medals in the over 17 event, with Cian taking gold in the event and Kevin winning silver.
In the second event of the afternoon the 200 Breaststroke, there was another silver medal for Sinead Carey (U12) with top five finishes for Sinead Walsh and Lauren Walsh.
Alex McFarland won silver in the U14 age-group with Keena Walsh and Ruth Keogh taking gold and silver respectively in the U16 event. Ellen Leahy took another silver in the over 17 event.
In the boys category, there was a third place podium finish for Tim Keogh (U12), Andrew Moore took silver in the U14 age group while Richard Murphy took gold in the U16 age-group. Cian Duffy won silver in the 17 and over event.
It was another gold for Galway with a win for Dairne Ryan in the over 17 200 IM event while Kevin McGlade claimed the gold in the male event. Bryan O’Sullivan took silver in the under 14 age group.
Galway notched up another four podium places in the 200 butterfly event with a gold for Bryan O’Sullivan and a silver for Andrew Moore in the Under 14 age group, Richard Murphy (U16) took bronze and Cian Duffy won gold in the 17 and over category.
In the last event of the day the 200 Freestyle, there was more success & positive performances by Galway SC swimmers. In the U12 girls Sinead Carey came second, in the U14 age group Alex McFarland won gold while Kate Finn took the silver medal. In the 17 and over category, Dairne Ryan told the gold while Ellen Leahy won bronze.
In the boys category, there were top performances in the last event of the night, with silver and bronze for Bryan O’Sullivan and Andrew Moore in the under 14 age group and in the 17 and over age group, another set of wins for Kevin McGlade who took the gold and Cian Duffy who won silver.
The highlight of the afternoon was an appearance from two-time Irish Olympic swimmer Andrew Bree, who spent the day at Leisureland entertaining and awarding medals to all the winners.
GSC would like to thank the team managers Rose Kavanagh and Deirdre Melody and Maria McHale and Nina McGlade for their fantastic support to the team over a very demanding day of competition & to GSC coaches Gwen Ryan, Kerrie Horkan, Ger Keogh & Brendan Breathnach who were greatly supportive to swimmers over the long day.
