Members of Tallaght Swim Club with their medals and team coaches
Medals galore for swimmers at c’ships
Tallaght Swim Club are fresh off the back of an amazing performance at this year’s National Age Group Championships which includes athletes up to the under 14 age category.
With eight swimmers competing the club managed a total of five gold medals, eight silvers and four bronze giving an impressive medal total of 17.
The club has a longstanding history in the area and generally operates out of Tallaght Sport Complex, they continue to punch above their weight competing with clubs that have far bigger budgets and resources.
Secretary Michelle O’Neill gave her opinion on how the club has managed to maintain competitiveness.
“I think it’s the culture of the club and the quality of the training. We have a lot of swimmers that would come to our club because of the quality of the training that we have. Clearly we’re doing something right because the swimmers are doing so well.
‘I suppose as well in the Tallaght community we’ve been going on for a long long time and we want to try to keep that spirit alive within the community as well.”
We’re trying to attract a bit of attention for the moment for fundraising and things like that because we are doing fantastic things but our costs are increasing and we are trying to keep them at a certain level to keep people swimming.
S’wimming is a really expensive sport.
‘There’s a lot of expense that comes with that”
Some of the costs afflicting the club include pool fees, maintaining a squad of around 100 swimmers training multiple times a week ensures that expenses stack up quickly.
Tallaght Sports Complex does not possess a 50 metre pool so the club is forced to rent from UCD to ensure its elite squads get to practice at least once a week in a 50 metre pool.
Coaches must be paid also and with ever expanding numbers, the need for coaches is constanttly growing.
“There’s a lot that we need to try to compete and we’re trying to keep the costs at a relatively affordable level but we’re finding that’s quite challenging at the moment.”
The club has a training camp coming up in Malta but due to the expense of the camp the club is hoping to launch a number of fundraising events to help cover the cost.
The eight swimmers who participated in the National Age Group Championships include
Zoe Dong, Wilson Li , Mia Colereavy, Lucas Li, Eamonn Li, Milena Zorychta, Haochen Li and
Oli Matusik. Every single swimmer made it to the finals and showed huge improvement with many medals won and personal bests achieved on the day.
Lucas Li won a silver medal in the 400m Individual Medley, a silver in the 100m Breastroke, a bronze in the 1500m Freestyle and a Silver in the 200m Individual Medley.
Eamonn Li won a gold in the 200m Breastroke, also picking up the prestigious ‘swim of the day’ award in the process, another gold in the 100m Breastroke, a third gold in the 200m Individual Medley, a silver in the 100m Butterfly & 200m Butterfly and finishing it all of with a bronze in 100m Backstroke.
Milena Zorychta won a gold in the 200m Breastroke and a bronze in the 100m Breastroke.
Haochen Li won gold in the 100m backstroke, silver in the 100m freestyle and a silver in the 50m freestyle.
Mia Colereavy won bronze in the 200m Breastroke while Wilson Li managed to secure a bronze medal in the 200m Butterfly.
Zoe Dong was awarded a Silver Certificate of improvement in the 1500m Freestyle while Oli Matusik won a bronze Certificate of Improvement in the 200m Breastroke.
