Dowling and Dineen make a splash at UL swimming gala

Date Published: 14-Mar-2013

Laser Swimming Club enjoyed success at the Dave McCullagh Gala held in University of Limerick recently, with one swimmer bringing home a British Youth Time and the Connacht Record for 200M Backstroke and a second swimmer achieving a Connacht Squad time and securing her palce on the National Youth Development Squad.

David Dowling and Molly Dineen were flying the flag for the club at the long-course three-day gala, and both had meetings to remember. Dineen was first up on the Friday with the 200m Fly and the 400m IM, and despite only a 10-minute gap between the two swims, she put in exceptional performances to make both finals.

Molly’s goal was to achieve a Connacht Squad time, so she decided to scratch the 400m IM final and concentrate on the 200m Fly, and while she achieved a personal best time, she agonisingly missed out on the Connacht Squad qualifying time by just four hundredths of a second.

Not to be deterred, the Barna youngster kept her nerve and made the final of Sunday’s 100m Fly event, where she swam a season’s best time of 1 minute 8.51 seconds to achieve the Connacht Squad qualifying time over the shorter distance.

She was soon celebrating on the double as news filtered through that her time in the 200m Fly final was enough to earn her a place on the National Squad Team, and she will meet-up with the squad for her first training session on Monday April 1 at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, while she will also join the Connacht Squad in the coming weeks on their upcoming training camp.

The second Laser SC member in the water was David Dowling, and he made club history by achieving a British Youths Time in the 200m backstroke, which will see him heading to the UK in July to compete against his peers across the water — his season’s best time of 2 mins 14.19 seconds was also a Connacht record.

Dineen and Dowling both train with Laser SC and the Connacht Performance Centre in NUIG, with Dowling also training on the National Youth Squad in Dublin.