Teenage ace McMahon shines in Abbotstown
Friday, 20 November 2009The 14-year-old Sycerika McMahon was the dominant swimmer on day two of the National Short Course Swimming Championships at Abbotstown in Dublin, writes RTÉ sports John Kenny.
McMahon, who swims out of the Leander Club in Belfast, set a new Irish senior record in the women's 200 metres breastroke when she broke the thee-year-old time, winning gold in 2:31.87, 0.12 of a second inside the old standard.
McMahon also won a gold medal in the women's 100 metres individual medley final and took a silver in the women's 50 breastroke final on a busy evening for the teenager.
Conor Leaney put himself in line to take the mens blue riband, the 100 metres freestyle, after setting the fastest time into tomorrow's semi-finals .
Leaney, part of the 10 strong Irish squad for the upcoming European Short Course Championships, swam 49.41 seconds and is the fastest qualifier into final.
Olympian Aishling Cooney is the fastest qualifier in the women's equivilant.
Stephen McQuillan of Ards, who, like Leaney and Cooney will be part of the Irish European squad, produced a dominant swim to win the men's 50 metres butterfly in 25.13 seconds.
Victory in the women's 50 metres butterfly went to 15-year-old Shauna O'Brien of Waterford. Her time of 28.08 seconds was a new Irish junior record.
Elsewhere, Brendan Gibbons gave Athlone a national title when he won the mens 1500 metres gold in a time of 16:25.68 while Donna Marie O'Prey of Larne won the women's equivalent in 17:18.19.
