Fiona Doyle was last night named High Performance Athlete of the Year at the Swim Ireland Annual Awards in the Citywest Hotel, Saggart. Doyle, who is originally from Limerick but based at the University of Calgary in Canada, had an outstanding year in 2014 and won the award based on her performances, in particular her 50m Breaststroke Final at the European Championships in Berlin. Doyle has already shown her desire to secure a place at the Rio 2016 Olympics in 2015with a number of new Irish Records and will target qualification for Rio 2016 at the World University Games and World Championships this summer.
Swim Ireland’s UL Sport Performance Centre Coach Lars Humer was named High Performance Coach of the Year. Humer works with Open Water swimmer Chris Bryan who was 9th in the 25K swim at the European Championships in 2014 as well as a host of other high performance swimmers.
Ten Junior International Athletes were also honoured on the night, they represented Ireland at European Junior Championships in Swimming and Diving and at the World Youth Olympics while over 20 volunteers were honoured with awards for their services and involvement in the aquatics over 20+ years.
The final part of the evening saw two inductions into the Swim Ireland Hall of Fame. Anne Cummins presented the first in a touching tribute to her sister Marian Fenton (RIP) and the second was presented by past president Wally Clarke to Mr Norman Green who had huge involvement in swimming in the 70’s and 80’s.
Speaking after the event, Swim Ireland’s Chief Executive Officer Sarah Keane commented: “We are delighted each year to be able to celebrate the great accomplishments of our athletes and coaches and to recognise our volunteers for the hard work that they do, that sometimes goes unnoticed. The awards night gives us the opportunity to celebrate and remember the hard work that everyone puts into our sports; swimming, water polo, open water, diving and masters swimming.”
2014 Swim Ireland Award Winners
Awards Winner
Swim Ireland Club of the Year 2014 Ards ASC
Swim Ireland National Volunteer of the Year 2014 Mary McMorrow
Swim Ireland Volunteer of the Year (Club/Regional) 2014 Nicole Dowdall
Swim Ireland Open Water Swimmer of the Year 2014 Rachel Lee
Swim Ireland Disability Swimmer of the Year 2014 Jonathan McGrath
Swim Ireland Club Athlete of the Year 2014 Antoinette Neamt
Swim Ireland Club Coach of the Year 2014 Brian Sweeney
Swim Ireland Local Media Award 2014 Evening Echo
Swim Ireland High Performance Athlete of the Year 2014 Fiona Doyle
Swim Ireland High Performance Coach of the Year 2014 Lars Humer
Swim Ireland Masters Outstanding Contribution Award 2014 Breda McNamara
Swim Ireland Outstanding Contribution to Water Polo Award 2014 Bert O’Brien
Swim Ireland Hall of Fame Marian Fenton
Swim Ireland Hall of Fame Norman Green
Swim Ireland President’s Award 2015 Liam Goss
Water Polo All Stars
Womens:
Isabelle Banks (Glenalbyn)
Lisa Kelly (St. Vincents)
Salina Smellers (St. Vincents)
Rachel Murphy (St. Vincents)
Orla Monaghan (Cathal Brugha)
Eleanor O’Byrne (Tribes)
Mairead Baker (St. Vincents) MVP
Men’s:
David O’Donnell (St. Vincents)
Eoin Nolan (St. Vincents)
Stiofan McMahon (Cathal Brugha)
Jonathan Kirk (Cathal Brugha)
Eoin Bridgeman (St Vincents)
Jozef Krezsak (Half Moon)
Jonathan Donnelly (Cathal Brugha) MVP
