North West Regional Championships

13 year old Eric Byrne qualified for for four events at this years championships, 50m Back, Butterfly and Free and 100m Free.

His first event on Saturday morning was the 50m Fly in which he qualified fourth fastest for the final in a time of 31.44. In the final he managed to swim faster going 31.12 but unfortunately wasn't enough for a medal finishing in 5th place.

Onto the 50m Free on Saturday afternoon, again another strong heat swim in a time of 28.78 and again ranked fourth in the final. However this time there wasn't to be another disappointed as through pure grit and determination he managed to finish second in a time of 28.33. In what was a close race, there was only 0.46 of a second between 1st and 5th place, Eric came through really strong at the end touching out all but one of his competitors.

Eric had not been feeling well all week leading up to the championships and it was no surprise that after his exploits on Saturday he pulled out if the 50m Back and 100m Free on the Sunday due to illness.

Nevertheless his achievements on the Saturday proved that with the right amount of dedication and willingness to train hard Garston club swimmers can succeed at this level.