Bangor Swim Club are hosting a Long Course gala at the Bangor Aurora Aquatic and Leisure Complex on Saturday 14 January 2017.  This is an open gala, i.e. not divided into age groups.

Breifne closing date for this gala is Tuesday 27 December 2016 and meet information can be found here.

The Aquasprint season began in Newry Leisure Centre, Clanrye Avenue, Newry on Saturday 3 December 2016, when Breifne came up against Newry Swim Club.  The gala was held over 40 events with children ranging in age from 7 to 12 years old.

Before the gala commenced the team along with this year’s team captains, joint girls captains Aoibheann Clarke and Beth Grant and joint boys captains Adel Essajee and Aamer Essajee were presented with their new Forest Feast Aquasprint T-shirts.

As always in an Aquasprint gala the first event is the Medley Relays, which always causes great excitement and this gala was no different with some very close finishes.  The 2008 along with the 2005 relay team won their races while Newry secured victory with the 2007 and 2006 teams.  This meant that going into the individual events Breifne and Newry were sitting even on 20 points each.

The first individual event was the Backstroke and Breifne took 4 wins out of a possible 8 while obtaining 2 second place finishes.  This gave Newry a slight lead of 6 points.

Breaststroke was the second individual event of the evening, again Breifne secured 4 wins out of a possible 8 and 3 second place finishes.  This allowed Newry to stretch their lead by 12 points.

Breifne were able to continue to achieve another 4 wins in the Butterfly event and 2 second place finishes.  There was now 20 points dividing the two teams.

The Freestyle event was the final individual event of the evening and again Breifne were able to take 4 wins out of 8 along with 3 second place finishes.  Newry had stretched their lead now by 22 points.

The Freestyle Relay was the final team event of the evening and the excitement was mounting as the teams lined up.  Newry took the first relay with the 2008 children swimming.  Next up was the 2007 team and both teams battled to the end with Newry just pipping Breifne on the touch by 0.09 of a second.  Newry went on the take the next relay but 2005 team were too much for the Newry team and Breifne won that relay with over a second to spare.

Final Score Breifne 185 points, Newry 215 points.

Breifne have their second Aquasprint Gala at home on 11 February when the play host to Larne.