The Coleraine Inst swimming team continued their successful season recently at the Irish Secondary Schools Championships held in Cork. The event which took place on the 13^th and 14^th February saw the top schools from throughout Ireland joining together to compete. The team, consisting of a junior and senior squad surpassed themselves and managed to better their placing as of the Ulster Secondary Schools Championships held at Larne earlier this year. The junior team consisting of Andrew McCulloch, James Richardson, Michael Evans and Calum Ferguson enjoyed much success. The team fought off fierce competition from some of the top schools in Ireland to win gold in both the 4x50M Medley and 4x50M Freestyle relays, thus, making them double Irish champions. Individual success came from Andrew McCulloch, who won a silver medal in the junior 100M backstroke and Michael Evans finished 4^th in the junior 100M Butterfly.                                                                              

The senior squad, who were competing for the first time at senior level in this competition, were on top form putting in a very commendable performance, the still young senior squad which consisted of Chris Coils (CAI captain), Ciaran Sloan, Jay-Dee Ferguson and Andrew Richardson emerged with a gold medal in the 4x50M Medley relay and silver in the 4x50M Freestyle relay, narrowly missing out on 1^st place. This was an excellent result for the senior squad, considering they were racing against teams of ages up to 18. Individually, Jay-Dee Ferguson was placed 4^th in his Intermediate 100M Breaststroke. Chris and Ciaran both finished 4^th in the senior 100M Butterfly and senior 100M Backstroke, respectively. Overall this was an extremely successful result for the entire team and these results reflect the hard work put in by both the team and coach, Mr Gary Knox.                            

The senior team are now currently in training for the annual Bath Cup held in Crystal Palace, London. This prestigious event is the pinnacle of schools swimming where over 60 teams from across the UK compete in both freestyle and medley relay events. As of now, CAI are going to London as senior Irish champions – this alone is encouraging and the team hope to improve on their 7^th place finish in last year’s final.