THE Munster Future Challenger meet took place across two venues, Tralee and Mayfield. 

The event showcased some of the most promising young swimmers in the region. There were large entries from Cork city and county clubs, at the Mayfield venue. All competitors were restricted to four events.

Some of the standout performances came in the 12-year-old category, with Sonny Barrett, Blackrock winning three of his four races. He was the comfortable victor at 200m IM 3:03.19 ahead of teammates Finn Read 3:14.16 a d Rasmus Jakobsen 3:15.12. He had 6 seconds to spare at 100m butterfly, 1:33.19 with Read again in second, 1:39.39. On that occasion, it was Kevin Murphy, Dolphin who claimed third, 1:45.31. 

It was a closer affair at 50m breaststroke. Barrett touched on 44.22 with Murphy in second with 46.57 and Eamon Bradley, Blackrock in third with 47.88. Barrett had to settle for second place at 100m backstroke 1:31.75 behind his clubmate, Lev Lobanets 1:18.10. Fermoy’s Connor Holland completed the podium 1:32.38.

Lobanets added two other victories. Both victories yielded a similar line-up. At 50m backstroke he touched on 37.30, ahead of Murphy on 39.52 and Read on 39.87. At 50m butterfly he touched on 35.68 ahead of Holland 40.47 and Read on 40.61.

Another to achieve three gold and one silver in this age category was Laura Garcia Villa, Dolphin. She too was the comfortable victor over 200m IM 3:13.92, ahead of teammate Jess Merrigan 3:20.20 and Mallow’s Suin Herlihy 3:24.55. She led an all-Dolphin trio at 50m breaststroke touching on 47.08 with Claire Bugler on 47.89 and Merrigan on 48.04. She dipped under 40 seconds to win 50m backstroke 39.89. 

Maeve O’Reilly, Mallow was second on 40.39 with Burgler in third on 41.26. She had to settle for silver at 100m butterfly 1:33.89. It was Herlihy who claimed the fly title, touching on 1:32.80 with Bugler in third with 1:43.58. Herlihy doubled up with victory in the shorter 50m butterfly, 40.10 with Clonakilty’s Niamh Doyle in second with 41.24 and Thea Barry, SWSC in third on 45.29. O’Reilly dipped under the 1:30 second mark to win the 100m backstroke 1:29.89 with Barry in second on 1:30.76 and Sive Hoare, Blackrock in third with 1:35.00.

MEDAL HAUL

Another to achieve three gold and one silver was Adam Mikolaj, swimming in the 13-14 category. He led an all-Dolphin trio at 200m IM touching on 3:06.97 ahead of Cian Vaughan, 3:12.83 and Sean O’Shea on 3:37.85. He won double gold in the butterfly events, where he again led a Dolphin trio at 100m. Mikolaj was impressive at 100m touching on 1:38.39 with Patryk Polak on 1:49.24 and O’Shea in third with 1:55.91. 

He sneaked under the 41 second mark at 50m to win on 40.99 with Mati O’Conaill, Blackrock in second with 41.63 and Loughlin Sweeney, SWSC in third with 42.20. He was pushed all the way by teammate Cian Vaughan in the 100m backstroke, but he clinched silver on 1:28.10 with Vaughan in third with 1:28.21. 

The event was won by Blackrock’s Rian Ferriss 1:25.76. Vaughan won the 50m backstroke to collect a full set of medals 38.54. Ferriss was second on 39.68 and Cai Morgan, Streamline Cobh in third with 40.82.

10-year-old Phillipa Costello, Dolphin won three events. She touched on 41.89 to win 50m backstroke ahead of the Blackrock duo, Una Casey 46.48 and Eimear Burke 51.75. Costello and Casey topped the 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke podiums. Costello posted 44.72 & 55.09 while Casey placed second in each with 56.11 & 58.90 respectively.

Clubmates Frederick Tuytten and Thomas Anglim of Streamline Cobh claimed the top two places in the 10 year old 50m backstroke. Tuytten added victory at 50m butterfly while Anglim collected a second silver at 50m breaststroke.

Claire Bradley, SWSC, collected three gold in the 11 year old category. These came at 100m & 50m backstroke and at 50m butterfly.

Other medallists included: Roisin McGrath, Fionn O’Leary, Aimee O’Herlihy, Alannah Mulvihill, Eimear Burke, Aonghus O’Neill and Scarlett Collins from Blackrock. Charlotte May Costello, Seb Dunne, Luke Herlihy, Eoin Manson, Katie O’Connor, and Aoife McArdle from Dolphin. Louis Higgins and Eoin O’Brien from Mallow. Martha Walsh, Alicia Lyons and Cillian Turner from Streamline Cobh. Lucy O’Mahony, Aimee Murphy and Beatriz Carvalho from SWSC. Beth Hegarty, Lucia Miao, Emma Weng and Niamh Kilmartin from Fermoy.