Following a new format where the older swimmers will swim in a separate competition in May, this two day meet for girls aged 12 and under and boys aged 13 and under was held at the Leisureplex pool.
Jodie Kee (11) topped the team medal table with four gold, a silver and two bronze medals. After a lean period during which she has been battling injury problems Jodie has been going from strength to strength recently setting new personal best times every time she enters the pool. While she is currently unbeatable at either 100m or 200m butterfly, a stroke in which she excels, she also took first place at both the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley events and set new PB's in all her swims.
Another girl who has few peers when it comes to a particular stroke is eleven year old Courtney Hill. Taking 5 seconds off her PB in the 100m breaststroke, Courtney shaved nearly 9 seconds off her 200m time finishing clear of the field to make it a pair of breaststroke golds in her age group. And while Courtney specialised, Rebecca Foreman (12) reminded everyone what an excellent all-rounder she is taking the gold medal in the 200m backstroke, the silver in the 100 and 200m fly and bronze in the 100 and 200m freestyle and 200m IM. Whilst all Rebecca's times were pbs, her 20 second pb for the 200m fly silver medal stood out as an outstanding swim.
The girls were not the only ones who graced the top tier of the winners podium during the weekend. Olan Derry (12), like Rebecca another fine all-rounder, claimed the gold medal in the gruelling 200m fly with a 26 second PB and later secured second place in the 200m IM. With a very busy schedule of races over the weekend, Olan was never very far from the medals in most of his swims with a number of strong fourth places.
Lisburn's youngest gold medal winners were nine year old Regan McIlveen and Michael Mitchell who took the gold medals for the 200m freestyle and 100m fly respectively. Regan collected four silver medals in the 100 and 200m breaststroke, 100m freestyle and 200m backstroke and two bronze medals in the 100m backstroke and 200m IM – a total of seven medals.
Along with his gold, Michael bagged 2 silver in the 100m backstroke and 200 IM and 3 bronze in the 100 and 200m freestyle and the 200m backstroke to make it six in all.
Unlike previous years where Year of Birth determined the competitive category this year for the first time Age on the Day was the determining factor. This novel amendment meant swimmers born early in the year no longer were advantaged with the rules having changed they found themselves swimming against their older peers. This disadvantage however, did not deter Afton Fitzhenry (11) who swam a nine second PB and new club record of 2:38.60 to a claim a superb silver medal position in the 200m freestyle. Afton had a superb weekend recording impressive PB's in all her events.
Rachel Smyth shattered a long standing club record in the heats of the 11 year old girls 100m fly when she went 1:29.69 seeding her in second place for the final. However, such was the pressure of her crowded schedule, she was unable to repeat the time in the final. A note of consolation should go out to Gemma Bingham who pushed Rachel all the way and also bettered the previous club record.
There were many other multiple medal winners during the competition. Jake Clements enjoyed success in his favourite event the Butterfly winning gold in the 200m and silver over the 100m distance. He added to his haul winning bronze medals in the 100m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 200m IM all in personal best times.
Nine year old Hannah Taylor mounted the podium in her age group for two silver medals in the 100m back and 200m IM and two bronze medals in the 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke. Adam Matthews showed he is more comfortable at distance taking silver medals at the 200m breaststroke and freestyle and collecting a bronze at 100m freestyle whilst Laura Casey shattered both her 100m and 200m pbs for butterfly taking bronze medals in both events to go with her silver medal for the 200m breaststroke in her age group.
A new name on the podium and starting to put together some impressive swims was Chris Hill with two silvers at 100 and 200m backstroke while Sarah Graham worked hard to bag silver and bronze medals at the 200 & 100m breaststroke.
Katie Reid (100 and 200m back), Megan Morrison (200m back and IM), Chris Rowland (100m back and 200m fly) and Russell White (100 and 200m breast) each picked up a brace of bronze medals in their respective age groups whilst Kristan McIlveen had to content himself with a hard won silver at the 200m fly.
Peter Sands in the 200m backstroke and IM, Jemma Bingham in the 100m fly, and Paige Clements in the 100m breaststroke were just out of the medals in fourth place but each had outstanding swims while many others recorded new personal bests despite swimming out of their normal age group.
Lisburn City claimed 10 gold, 22 silver, 27 bronze and 76 other top 8 places while securing more qualifying times for the Irish Age Group Meets during the summer.