Donegal swimmers triumph at European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships

Donegal swimmers Anna Hennessy and Eoin Rooney introduced house a powerful mixture of medals from the European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in Italy.

Anna, from Letterkenny and Eoin, from Ballyshannon have been a part of a seven-strong workforce of swimmers representing the Irish Down Syndrome Swimming Organisation (IDSSO) in Padova final week.

All of the Irish athletes achieved their qualifying instances to compete and had glorious outcomes inside a discipline of greater than 17 nations.

Anna Hennessy took half in six particular person occasions plus two relays (one being pulled attributable to an damage of one of many swimmers); 100m and 50m entrance crawl, 100m and 50m butterfly taking private bests and in addition 100m and 50m backstroke.

With a private better of 12 seconds within the 100 again, Anna certified to the ultimate of the 50m again, taking sixth place in Europe. 

This was Eoin’s first lengthy course worldwide meet of such excessive customary. He competed individually in 50m frontcrawl, 50m again, 50m butterfly and 100m frontcrawl in addition to the 4×100 blended frontcrawl relay during which alongside Anna, Eoghan and Katie, they positioned fifth. 

Workforce Eire was supported by Head Coach Niall Molloy, Sinead Donagher and Johanna Tilley-Rock. Additionally they had excellent parental help from Padraig Ashe, Martina Kennedy, Ann English, Kevin Hennessy and Annmarie Hogg.

Workforce Eire Padova 2023. Photograph: Irish Down Syndrome Swimming

Each Anna and Eoin are members of Nemo Particular Olympics Swim Membership. They each skilled collectively within the lead as much as the championships underneath coach Sinead Donagher, who’s Eoin’s mom, at Finn Valley Leisure Centre. Anna can be a member of Swilly Seals and can be coached by her father Kevin in the course of the holidays.

Admiration for each Donegal swimmers was supported by the notable sponsorship from Kelly’s Diner Mountaintop and Convergint who ready the workforce with clothes/equipment to characterize their nation on the European Championships. 

“Anna and Eoin have been overwhelmed with the help they acquired from Donegal which didn’t go unnoticed by the remainder of the workforce,” mentioned Sinead.

“They’re each extraordinarily pleased with themselves and now proceed to coach in preparation for the World Down Syndrome Championships in Turkey 2024.”

Eoin Rooney and Anna Hennessy on the 2023 European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships

A spokesperson from Swim Eire added: “Head Coach Niall Molloy, Sinead Donagher and Johanna Tilley-Rock have been the workforce coaches. Nonetheless, it couldn’t have occurred with out a fully implausible help workforce: Padraig (head of Irish delegation), Ann, Martina & Ciaran (Workforce Managers), Kevin & Ann- Maire (Medical help) and all these members of the family who got here out to help the workforce. Properly completed workforce.”

Donegal swimmers triumph at European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships was final modified: September twenty second, 2023 by Rachel McLaughlin

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