Further success for Ballymena swimmers at Ards Open Gala.

Ballymena A.S.C was represented at the recent Ards Open Gala by three swimmers. For Oonagh O’Neill, Suzanna Brown & Claudia Mc Kernan
This was their second open gala in two weeks. The Ards open gala attracts swimmers from around Ulster and is viewed as a highly competitive meet and focuses on shorter distances. All three girls were hoping to follow up on their achievements at the Ulster Junior Championships.

The first event saw Suzanna Brown make reserve finalist in the 50m backstroke event. Her time of 41:61 represents a very strong swim from Suzanna and was to be the first of her three personal bests at this gala. The next event was the 50m breaststroke and Oonagh O’Neill qualified for the final. The final saw Oonagh secured 3rd place and a 50m bronze to add to her 100m and 200m breaststroke bronze medals from the Ulster Junior Championship.

In the 50m Butterfly event both Oonagh & Suzanna performed very strongly. Oonagh qualified for her second final & Suzanna finished 9th in the heats with a personal best 47:45. Oonagh finished forth in the Butterfly narrowly missing a bronze medal. The concluding event in the ten year old age group was the 50m freestyle event and again Suzanna Brown swam another personal best of 38:82 while Oonagh O’Neill qualified for her 3rd final. In the final Oonagh swam a very fast personal best of 34:32 and secured her second bronze medal.

Claudia Mc Kernan competed in three events in the 11 year old age groups. The breast stroke and freestyle events provided Claudia with two personal bests and Claudia was very close to reaching the breast stroke final and finished a commendable 14th in the freestyle event with a second personal best of 37:42.

Stuart Barker (coach) commented “the Ards Junior Open Gala is regarded as a spring board for open gala swimmers’ careers. This gala has not only provided medals and personal bests but also will give the girls great encouragement.” The three girls, along with other team swimmers, will be competing in the forthcoming Alliance Bridgestone gala to be held in Larne in June.