Swim Ireland has
today announced details of their Irish National Team Trials for the 2021
International Summer Meets, including the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Trials, which will run from 20th – 24th April 2021 at the National Aquatic
Centre on the Sport Ireland Campus, will replace the formerly announced '2021
Irish Open Swimming Championships'.
Athletes will have
the opportunity to meet qualification standards for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and
Paralympic Games, the 2021 LEN European Championships in Budapest (Hungary) in
May, the FISU World University Games in Chengdu (China) in August and the LEN
European Junior Championships in July, with a venue yet to be confirmed.
The competition will
comprise of a full Olympic programme with heats, semi-finals, and finals in all
50m, 100m and 200m events and heats and finals in 400m, 800m and 1500m events.
It will give our top athletes several qualification opportunities and will
provide some very exciting swims over the course of the meet.
The Trials will be
open to Performance athletes currently training in recognised onshore training
bubbles in National Centre Dublin, National Centre Limerick and at Bangor
Aurora, as well as those identified athletes of similar standing who are living
and training offshore.
Swim Ireland
wholeheartedly recognises the support of the Irish Government, Department of
Sport, Sport Ireland and the Sport Ireland Institute, the Olympic Federation of
Ireland, the National Aquatic Centre, and Sport Northern Ireland and its
Institute for supporting us to deliver this event for our top Irish performance
athletes.
Irish International
Brendan Hyland is just .07 of a second from the qualification time in the 200m
Butterfly and is relishing the opportunity to qualify for his first Olympic
Games, he commented ‘The addition of semi-finals gives us an extra chance to
perform at our best and ultimately my aim is to nail the 200m Butterfly time
(1:56.48) at the start of the meet. That’s always been the plan for a long time
now.’
Speaking on today’s
announcement, Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd commented,
"As we continue to deal with the challenge that COVID presents us, we felt
that it was important to provide athletes with the best possible opportunity to
qualify for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and/or for other Irish National
Teams this summer whilst recognising that a lot of the athletes that would
normally partake in this competition will not feature as they have not been
able to train and prepare for a number of weeks. The event will be live
streamed, and our swimming community will be able to join us each day to cheer
on those looking to represent their nation this summer and we believe that the
balance that this gives us in April is one which will be fully understood and
supported by those involved in Irish swimming. For those who are not able to
train right now, please remain patient, as your day will come".
Imagery: Swim Ireland
Trish Mayon
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