Leinster Senior Schools Freestyle Cup returns

St. Finians swim team make their mark on the Leinster results board. The team, Matt Coward, Paul Coady, Peter Thornton and Luke Coward arrived at the National Aquatic Centre to compete against all Leinster Senior Schools.The first IM relay saw Paul lead off with back crawl 31, followed by Peter on breaststroke 41.6; Luke on fly 34.1 and Matt bringing up the final leg in freestyle 24.7 this effort brought the team in third place getting the bronze medals. Twenty minutes later, the boys were in action again for the freestyle relay. With Peter leading out in a time of 31.3, followed by Luke in 30.8 Paul in at 27.4 and Matt coming home at 24.6. Yet again, this young team pulled another bronze medal out of the bag.Both Paul and Matthew qualified individually for finals in the 100m back crawl and 100m freestyle events. Paul clocking in an impressive time of 1.07 seconds for back crawl, and Matt in at 106.45 giving him a bronze medal position.Matt followed in freestyle, being the fastest qualifier, he was ideally placed in lane four. First off the block he maintained his lead throughout the race, touching the electronic finishing pads at 53.25 seconds. Matt won the freestyle Senior Cup for the second year in a row. Both Paul and Matt now qualify for All Ireland Senior Schools which will be held next month. At the end of last year, Matt and Paul swan in the Leinster Open Winter Championships. Paul swimming 1.07.50 in 100 fly and 1.09.73 in 100 IM. Paul"s next event was 100 metres freestyle and is now very near to getting the 'Sub Minute'. His heat time was 1.00.34.Matt qualified for the finals of the Freestyle and Fly 'Skins event'. This entails the eight fastest swimmers to swim 50 metres, the slowest then being eliminated, after a stipulated rest of three minutes between each heat, the next seven swimmers swim 50 metres again, the slowest being asked to leave and so on until the last two swimmers battle it out for the final prize.This event is indeed both a physical, strategic and mental challenge, with huge encouragement from the crowd, Matt stayed the course and walked off with the first prize cheque. A short time later he was called on to compete in the fly finals and managed to come a very respectable fourth place.In the same competition Matt competed and won the 'B' final of the 100m Freestyle, his overall time, 53.06 being second fastest between A and B finals. He also clocked up fourth place in the 'A' 100metre Fly final in a time of 27.51.The swimming season finished in the summer with Matt competing in Sheffield at British Youths coming 11th in 50 freestyle and again at Tri Nations Cup coming second again in 100 metres free.Many thanks are due to the staff and principles of St. Finians College, and to the coaches from both Mullingar and Dublin who actively support and encourage the College Swim Team.