Widnes Amateur Swimming Club

Results for the Irish National Championships, Grove Pool, Belfast

AS Widnes ASC's competitive season reaches its climax, four swimmers made the trip to this year's Irish National Championships at the Grove pool in Belfast and enjoyed a great weeks swimming in Ireland's top open meet.

Mark Higgins led the group over and opened his championship with a fine 200m backstroke.

His time of 2.16.8 helped him to reach the B final and finish in 10th place overall.

Mark's backstroke went from strength to strength and he received two fine PB times of 1.02.9 in the 100m and 39.6 in the 50m setting a new club record in the process.

He rounded off a strong performance with 55.9 in the freestyle on Saturday.

This was Mark's final competition for the club before leaving Loughborough University.

Mark's brother Neil Higgins also moved up the placings in the 200m backstroke to 12th placed junior after a good start.

This was Neil's first trip to this competition and the experience will help him next year.

Carl Thomas, at 15, was giving away three years in the junior age group (u/18) category, never the less, he swam with great determination.

He finished courageously in the 200m breaststroke, despite misjudging a couple of turns to set a new club record and PB time of 2.53.7.

This gave him seventh junior and a place in the B final.

Carl's breaststroke times of 1:11.9 for 100m and 34.1 for 50m were just outside his best, but were good enough to move him up the rankings.

This young man could challenge for next year's medals with a little more work and determination.

Also making her debut across the Irish Sea, 15 year old Heather Jones became the first Widnes girl to enter this competition.

Heather challenged strongly in the 50m freestyle and was rewarded with a fine time of 29.9 seconds from an outside lane to complete a great team performance.

The team were made extremely welcome by members and officials of the Irish ASA and invited to bring a team to next year's event.

The club's final competition of the season is the ASA National Age Group Championship at Coventry in August and they will be represented by Claire Dickinson, Leanne Maher and Carl Thomas.

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