Munster Express Online

Shauna O’Brien: 3 golds and a silver at U16

The four-day swim meet held at the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin, attracted entrants from France, South Africa, England, Scotland, and Egypt to compete against Ireland’s top talent.

American-based Irish swimmer Barry Murphy; the first Irish man to swim the 100m freestyle in under 50 seconds, flew in especially for the meet.

Waterford Crystal had seven swimmers who achieved the necessary qualification standard, namely, Diarmaid Brennan, David O’Sullivan, Louise Kent, Niamh Cleary, Shauna O’Brien, Ken Breathnach, and Clare Larkin.

Crystal managed to win a tally of 7 Gold and 2 Silver medals at the meet – no mean achievement.

Shauna O’Brien was Crystal’s top swimmer, winning a total of 3 golds and a silver medal in her age group. In the 100m fly the Kilmeaden teenager won in a time of 1.04 seconds, beating Emily Heyburn of The City of Belfast SC by 2 seconds. In the 400 free Shauna’s winning time of 4.40 seconds was 10 seconds ahead of Connacht’s Romy Madden.

In the 200m freestyle Shauna was second to Katie Reid of Lisburn SC. She also had a fourth place in the 50m fly at senior level missing out on a medal by less then half a second.

Shauna saved her best swim for the final day, when in the 200m medley she produced a personal-best time of 2.26.31 winning the race a full 3 seconds faster than French swimmer Kristy McLauchlan.

See The Munster Express newspaper for full story or subscribe to our PDF version.