Irish Deaf Sports Association

10th Swimming EC Day 6
26th June 2010

Morning Report..

With final day for the competitions, only Nora will be doing 200m Freestyle. As usual route, she get up for breakfast, get transport to the pool by bus and did the warm up. With all the experience, she collected during the week, she keen to do a big final push with 200m Freestyle. She was in 3rd & final heat event and finished in 12th place with time of 2.28.48 (new Personal Best). She missed out the final by less than 2 second. Hard luck.

Afternoon Report..

There is no Irish Swimmers take part with afternoon final event but they turned up to watched. At the end, a close ceremony took place and many swimmers exchanged swimming gears as part of memory.
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10th Swimming EC Day 5
25th June 2010

Morning Report..

While they enjoyed their free day yesterday, they woke up this morning with a great form for breakfast except Nora because she doesn’t have the morning event but will complete 800m Freestyle final in the afternoon.

With today events, one of the biggest & exciting events will be Men 100m Freestyle as Eoin & Vincent will be involving.

At the pool, both Eoin & Vincent did their warm up and Coach Alan, have a few words with their tactic for the 100m Freestyle. Eoin began his event at 3rd heat and as expected, he finished 1st with the time of 54.92. Next to Vincent, he was in the 5th & final heat and did 57.25.

With overall, only Eoin make it to the afternoon final with 3rd fastest place for while, Vincent finished in 12th place and missed out. Eoin’s rival Luca Germano, Italian, was the fastest!

For afternoon final, Nora will do 800m Freestyle & Eoin will do 100m Freestyle.

Afternoon Report..

While Nora & Eoin have a good short rest and are ready to swim for the final. With many Irish supporters arrive the pool, they are hoping to see two medals winner at the end of today competitions.

At start of event, its 800m women final as Nora is due to swim after finished 4 fastest place last Wednesday from heat. She knows she would require another new Personal Best if she want to win the medal. She finished 4th with time of 10.31.81, a new Personal Best. Alan & her are pleased with the performance.

Next to 100m Men Freestyle final, a big crowd arrived the pool to watch the event. With only under a second different between each swimmer, anyone could win the event.

Once the final started, Eoin make a good started at 25m before he started to struggle up to 50m, where he was in 5th place, while Italian Luca was in 1st. Eoin was still in struggled up to 75m before he managed to swam better and finished fast in 2nd with time of 54.48. Eoin’s rival, Luca won the race.

At one stage, the supporters thought Eoin have blew it but are thriller with Eoin with brilliant finished at the last 25m!

Another medal for Ireland with Silver and many congratulation to him.
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1st U21 Basketball WC # 2
25th June 2010

Report by Ciara Anna Moloney

Ireland 12 - 99 Belarus

We played our very first match today against Belarus today. It's a pity we were beaten by them, but the result wasn't as bad as last year European Championships. From my view as Vice Captain, I thought the girls gave quite a good performance, but I am confident we can do much better in our next match.A

The opening ceremony was also held, I've never felt so proud of us all representing the Ireland team! The whole court was packed with men and women representing their countries. Many basketball officials and highly looked up to citizens from Poland welcomed us all. There was al slso a Polish band as well as Polish dancers.

Was a good day meeting new people and playing for our country!
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10th Swimming EC Day 4
24th June 2010

It is their free day from swimming competitions. As usual, they did their light training session at 10am before they going on tour to Dortmund Football Stadium at 3pm.

Another supporter have arrived hotel and this time it Paul Ryder. He greeted to swimming team and delighted with their performance so far. Most swimmers & Paul arrived the stadium and it turned out with badly organised! A big group of people turned up & they weren't allowed go in the stadium at same time but allowed up to three people at a time only!!! So, they decided to change plan and went to the famous tower to get a view of city of Dortmund.

At evening, they watched the World Cup match and chilling out. ____________________________________________________________________________________
1st U21 Basketball WC #1
24th June 2010

Report by Carmel Duggan

I got up at 4am in morning, I was so wrecked. But I was excited and nervous at the same time. I slept in Sarah-Jane's house and she drove me and two Ciara to the airport. I saw my team dress in match tracksuit, I thought we look si professional and I am so proud of my team. We went on the plane for three hours journey from Dublin to Warsaw airport, and then we got our bags.

We met our guide in the airport, and then we got into the bus for two hours journey to Lublin with Israel Basketball team. My team ans I tried to talk to them as we want to make some more friends. They were nice but shy!

I was so glad to stay in Victoria Hotel as I know that I will enjoy the luxury of the room and food! When we got our keys for our room and we were excited to see the room like. I am sharing with Sabrina, when we reached to our room which is on tenth floor! When we opened our door and were shocked to see how small our room is. I expect better but maybe I expect too much!

We had our dinner, the dinner was nice so I ate them all. We were chilled and chatting with different countries. We had our basketball training at 7pm for an hour. It was easy training as the coach, Orla didn't want us to injury ad we had a long day.
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10th Swimming EC Day 3
23rd June 2010

Morning Report..

The swimmers got up this morning at 7.30am and all were in great form.They were met by their minibus and Alan Turner as they set off for their early morning warm-up swim. The IDSA President and myself along with the team supporters; Mary and John Duggan, Eileen Nolan and her sister and Noel McArdle also joined the team at the pool eagerly awaiting the day ahead.

In the second event of the day, Nora Duggan swam in the 200m Backstroke and did her personal best time, 2.55.65. The Irish team and supporters were delighted with her excellent progress. She got into the final as she finished in 8th fastness place, so we’ll be looking forward to seeing how she progresses later on this afternoon.

With 50m Butterfly, there were four heats and Eoin Nolan was in the same heat at Vincent McArdle. At the 3rd heat, Eoin and Vincent swam in a very fast competitive heat both achieved great times with Eoin finishing on 27.57 and Vincent in 29.17. Some of the times from the other heats were very fast, both the President, Kevin Lynch and myself were trying to work out the times for the top eight fastness for the final and then Alan worked it out before found out that Eoin finished in 9th fastness place. He only missing out on a place in the final by under 1 seconds!!! Both swimmers were happy enough with their times and knew they had done all they could.

Now for the exciting part, Nora swam in the 800m Freestyle. There were two heats and Nora did very well in the long event (16 lengths in a 50m pool). She achieved the time of 10.36.63 which is her new personal best time. Here is the extra bonus, she is in the 4th ranking for the final on Friday afternoon. We all were delighted for her and I could see from her expression, when finding out that she was the fourth fastest in Europe that she was thrilled. We packed her off on the bus with Nora parents, John and Mary, and asked them to ensure she has lunch and a nap while the rest of the squad all walked back to the hotel in lovely sunshine.

After our lunch in a nice cafe beside our hotel, the President and I went back to the hotel where we bumped into three new Irish supporters who just arrived this morning.They are Justin Smith, Nicholas O'Halloran and Mark McLaughlin. We were excited to tell them about Nora's two finals in the afternoon.They are all tired from a long journey but determined to join usthe swimming pool to cheer Nora on this afternoon.
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10th Swimming EC Day 2
22nd June 2010

Morning Report..

All swimmers got up with their top form at 7.30am for a healthy delicious breakfast. Before they departure to the pool, there is a mini bus to bring them to the pool and return in the mornings and same for afternoons everyday, which is handy to let the swimmers save all their energies for the competition.

Nora began with 100m Freestyle at second heat and she keen to avoid repeat with yesterday technical light problem, which cost her 400m Freestyle final on yesterday but it turned out same problem for 100m Freestyle!! This time, at her lane, yellow & green lights came on at the same time, which confused her. EDSO Technical officer, Nel Naaktgeboren-Klein approached the swimming starter and referee then discussed with Nora. We all were so tense and hoping for the best solution for Nora compared to yesterday, as she got no chance with yesterday final. However, Nora was happy to move to third heat and she swam in her personal best time with 1.09.30, meaning that she finished with 11th fastest place and in place for reserve final. We all were delighted for her and admired in how she coped with her unfortunate happening yesterday & today. She is a very positive woman and many other countries official asking me how she was this morning from yesterday's upsetting moment for her. I proudly told them that she is positive and got on with a new day. This made me so proud of her.

Next action for Eoin Nolan and Vincent McArdle with 50m Freestyle. This event is one of few exciting events and anyone could win it. Eoin finished with 4th fastest place with time of 25.16 & in place for this afternoon final, while Vincent finished 14th with time 26.32 and didn't make for final as this event was very competitive with many excellent times. So we are so excited for this forthcoming tensing final in the afternoon with Luca Germano from Italy, Vadim Borovik and Ilya Sarykin, both from Russia. Eoin needs to dive in the pool quicker for the final to get a best chance to win.

Vincent was so disappointed and he knows that he would have done better if he did more training in swimming. However, he was 21 years old yesterday and his Father, Noel surprised him in deciding to join us in Germany yesterday and we celebrated with a birthday cake for him last night.

We will go back to the pool at 2.30pm for the Irish Deaf swimmers to do warm up training and get ready to wave and roar for Eoin's 50m Freestyle final.

Afternoon report

A long slow afternoon again with long wasted time in between each finals again!!

Eoin swam in the 50m Freestyle final. We all were nervous and biting our nails…Aw he finished 4th as it was a very close race with Vadim Borovik, Russia, came 1st with 24.58, Ilya Sarykin, Russia, came 2nd with 24.85 and Luca Germano, Italy, came 3rd with 24.61. Eoin Nolan & Volodymyr Natalchuk, Ukraine came 4th, 25.09. Look at the time as all were going fast to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

Naturally, Eoin was so disappointed but he is focusing on more swimming events tomorrow, with 50m Butterfly with Vincent McArdle. Nora Duggan will be doing 200m Backstroke and 800m Freestyle. Watch out for Day Three report!
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10th Swimming EC Day 1
21st June 2010

Postive Start for Irish in Germany....
Morning Report..

On the 1st day of completition, Eoin Nolan & Vincent McArdle began with 200m Freestyle heat. Eoin finished 4th fastness with 2.01.25 and will swim final at afternoon, while Vincent finished 21st with 2.44.74. Then Nora Duggan swam 400m freestyle & she finished 7th with 5.09.06 and will swim final later on. Eoin & Vincent swam another event with 50m backstroke, Vincnet finished 10th with 31.44 & Eoin finished 12th with 32.17. Both didn't make to final. Nora complete final event of the morning with 100m backstroke & she finished 6th with 1.24.78 and place for final.

Afternoon Report..

Another medal winner for IDSA Swimming Team...Eoin Nolan cliamed brone medal for the 200m Freestyle with 1.57.76, Luca Germano, Italy, finished 1st with 1.54.44 & Artur Pioro, Poland, finished 2nd with 1.57.36. Eoin is delighted with it and he look forward with tomorrow 50m Freestyle.

Thing didn't go plan for Nora Duggan..She was about to start 400m Freestyle but the starter light end up with problem and she couldn't completed the final. She was disappointed but didn't stop her to get on with it and focus with 100m Backstroke. She finished 6th with time of 1.26.20 and she was delighted with it.

Irish Swimmers in action tomorrow are: Eoin Nolan (50m Freestyle), Nora Duggan (100m Freestyle) and Vincent McArdle (50m Freestyle).
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Irish Deaf Swimming Squad Arrived Dortmund, Germany
20th June 2010

The Irish Deaf Swimming Squad led by Deirdre Byrne Dunne, Swimming Director, begin its campagn tomorrow at the 10th European Deaf Swimming Championships in Dortmund, Germany where 3 Irish swimmers will be action. The completitions run from Monday 21st to Saturday 26th June in the Sudbad Dortmund.

They checked in Hotel Mercury this morning and have a brief meeting with before they went to pool for a light training session.

Irish Swimmers in action tomorrow are: Eoin Nolan (200m Freestyle), Nora Duggan (400m Freestyle & 100m Backstroke) and Vincent McArdle (200m Freestyle).