Young Galway swimmer sets two new Irish junior records at European finals

A young Galway swimmer has set two new Junior Irish records at the European Short Course Swimming 2012 Championships, which are taking place in Chartres in France this week.

Cian Duffy (18) from Maree in Oranmore, who is a member of Galway Swimming Club, set a new Irish record in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2mins 4.01 seconds, and followed that up when he was part of the 4X50m relay team, along with fellow Galway swimmer David O’Sullivan, which set a new record of 1 min 47.02 seconds.

The Galway duo were joined in that relay team by another Connacht swimmer, Brendan Gibbons from Athlone, as well as Dublin’s Brendan Hyland, who also set a new Irish record in the 100m Butterfly, a stunning achievement from the quartet considering this was their senior international debut. O’Sullivan also set a personal best of 56.59 seconds in the 100m fly.

“This is their big transition from teenage “age groups” swimming into the world of adult international swimming, where many of the swimmers are effectively professionals. So to acquit themselves as they are doing and to lower long standing Irish junior records, and come within sniffing distance of the senior records, bodes very well indeed for Swim Ireland’s patient Long Term Athlete Development Programme,” said Cian’s father, Ronan Duffy.

“The four are great friends, all on the national squad together, and have all been racing each other since they were 10 years old. Cian and David have been training companions and competitive rivals since they were tots, and this is their second international appearance together for Galway, having made semi-finals in the European Junior Championships in Belgium last July,” he said.

The appearance of the two Galway boys at their first senior international swim meet is the culmination of Galway Swimming Club’s own 5-year athlete development programme run by Head Coach Pearse McGuigan, who has recently been appointed to the additional role of Director of the Western Performance Centre in the Kingfisher Club at NUIG.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.