Seven gold medals for Ciara

Gort youngster Ciara Doran had a bumper weekend, bringing home seven gold medals from the Gerry Ryan Open Gala in University of Limerick.
Ciara, who is just 11, goes to Peterswell National School and is a member of Limerick Swimming Club.
The enthusiastic young swimmer completed in seven events, five individual and two team and managed first place in each. On Saturday, she took part in the 800m freestyle, her first competitive effort at this distance. She swam a Division One time, managing 10.57.56.
Next, she swam the 200m backstroke and was tested by very strong opposition but won with a personal best and a Division One time of 2.52.27.
The Limerick team, featuring Shona Hickey, Sarah Carey and Tara Finnucane,  also won the 4x50m freestyle relay.
On Sunday, Ciara took gold in the U-12 200m fly in a time of 3.00.62, missing the Division One time by just over three seconds but managing to beat her personal best by nearly nine seconds.
She followed this with gold in the 200m individual medley with a time of 2.53.72, inside Division One, and knocking 14.41 off her personal best.
The 200m freestyle was next up and the young athlete admitted she was running on almost empty but swam a PB and managed a Division One time again, while also netting gold.
The South Galway girl’s final event of the day was the 4x50m individual medley relay. Athlone pushed the Limerick team to the wall with just.02 in it in the end.