On Saturday 28th November Coleraine Grammar School’s Junior, Intermediate and Senior swimming teams travelled to Ballymena for the annual Ulster Schools
Swimming Grammar School Gala. This gala attracts the top swimmers from all over Ulster and the event was as usual very competitive with some great
swims.
The Junior (Years 8 – 10) session started early as it historically has the largest field of competitors. It proved to be a very successful morning
for Coleraine Grammar School with 2 individual medals and 2 team relay medals several other swimmers making finals.
One pupil retained her title for a second year of Ulster Grammar Schools Junior Girls’ Breaststroke Champion by winning the final by a very convincing
2.43 secs. Another pupil won a silver medal when he showed great determination in a very tight race to finish second in the Junior Boys’ Backstroke
final. He was unlucky in the Junior Boys Freestyle final when he narrowly missed a medal when he came home in 4th position.
Two other Juniors also made finals where they were both eventually placed 5th in Junior Girls Backstroke and Junior Boys Breaststroke respectively.
The Junior Girls relay team was very successful and managed to win bronze medals in both the Medley and Freestyle relays in a large field of Junior
Girls teams. The medley relay in particular was very tight and the girls had to wait for a long time to find out if they had won silver or bronze,
however, they eventually found out they had just missed out on silver by 0.47sec.
The Junior Boys relay team were placed 5th in the medley relay and 7th in the Freestyle relay.
In the Intermediate age group (Years 11-12) there was one medal won.
One of our pupils swam in two events 50m back and 100m IM and was delighted to make both the finals in her two chosen events. She was placed 5th in
the 50m backstroke and a very impressive IM swim saw her placed 3rd to win a bronze medal. These are outstanding achievements to have made both
finals.
A further two boys also managed to make the top 6 and therefore qualify for the finals of the Intermediate Boys Backstroke and Intermediate Boys
Butterfly respectively, with them both finishing 5th.
The Seniors age group (Years 13+14) started by mid-afternoon with a small group of CGS swimmers. The male Senior relay team, with two Intermediate
swimmers swimming up to make a Senior Team, swam 2 fantastic relays to take bronze medal in both. The races were very tight and the excitement
was very high and they were all delighted to bring back two team medals.
In the senior individual events two CGS boys both swam well to qualify for the finals in their events.