Silver for Clare at European Junior Lifesaving Championships

IRISH competitors Bernard Cahill and Rory Sexton brought home the silver in the board rescue event from the European Junior Lifesaving Championships 2011.
Hosted by the Danish Swimming Federation and held in Copenhagen last week, the Irish team of 10 included seven young people from Clare.
Clare competitors Bernard Cahill, Eoin Gleeson, Ciara Gleeson, Adam McEvoy, Siobhán McGrath, Ciara Sexton, Rory Sexton, together with Eoghan Trihy (Waterford), Amy Walsh (Galway), Meadb McCloskey (Donegal) competed against teams from Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The Irish team managers were Triona McMenamin and Andrew Lally with Daniel Wrafter (Ireland) acting as referee for the European competition.
In a very exciting competition as the Irish flag was proudly flown, the Irish team competed fiercely in the pool and beach events. Bernard Cahill (Clare) finished in the top 10 in Europe in the 50m manikin carry, which involved swimming 25m freestyle, diving to recover a submerged manikin to the surface within 5m of the pick-up line and then carrying the manikin to the finish edge of the pool.
In the beach events, held on the artificial beach of Amagar Strand, there were Irish competitors in most of the finals. In the board rescue, Bernard Cahill placed fourth in the men’s event, with Siobhán McGrath placing 14th in Europe. In the swim event, Ciara Sexton placed 17th, Siobhán McGrath placed 21st in the ladies’ event with Bernard Cahill placing fourth and Rory Sexton placing 12th in the men’s event.
The beach flags event involved competitors starting from a prone position, turning and racing to obtain a baton (beach flag) buried upright in the sand approximately 20m away. Since there are always fewer batons than competitors, those who fail to obtain a baton are eliminated.
Ciara Sexton was second in the B final of this event and Rory Sexton also finished second in the men’s event. Eoin Gleeson made it to the B final. In the board rescue event, Ciara Gleeson and Siobhán McGrath placed eighth overall with Bernard Cahill and Rory Sexton bringing home the silver for Ireland.
Next weekend Clare Water Safety will host the Irish National Lifesaving Championships when the junior, senior and masters events at Spanish Point. The senior events will be held on Saturday and the junior and masters will be held on Sunday. Competitors are expected to travel to Clare from all over Ireland.