Eleanor makes a splash at annual awards function

Trim student Eleanor Murray scooped the 2010 Meath Chronicle / Cusack Hotels Youth award at the fourth annual sportsperson-of-the-year banquet at Knightsbrook Hotel on Friday night. She was one of three nominees and held off the strong challenge of Navan Road Club cyclist Ryan Mullen and Dunshaughlin conditional jockey Keith Donoghue. The three nominees were selected based on their achievements during 2010. Donoghue has made a big impact on the national hunt horseracing scene while Mullen is one of the most promising young cyclists to emerge from the Royal County in recent years. However, Murray, a third year student at Scoil Mhuire, Trim scooped the top prize after she won a gold medal in the 50-metre freestyle competition at the Down's Syndrome International and World Swimming Championships in Taiwan in October. She also set a personal best time of 52.32 on her way to victory. A bronze medal was also captured in the 100-metre butterfly event where another personal best time of 2:17.90 was recorded. Interviewed by master of ceremonies Micheal †Muircheartaigh, the Trim teenager outlined her training schedule and her plans for the future as well as a brief summary of her achievements last year. Last March she won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Down Syndrome (DS) National Championships which was all the more significant as those performances earned World Championship qualification. The busy schedule was maintained during April when she travelled to the DS Open European Championships in Southampton and achieved a fourth qualification standard for the World Championships. She was selected to represent Leinster in the Special Olympics national finals at Limerick in June where she added two more gold medals and a silver and then in October she travelled to Taiwan, as part of a seven-person Irish team for the World DS Swimming Championships. Apart from winning the gold and bronze medals in two of the four events she competed in, she set three personal best times. The European Championships are the next target for the talented Trim swimmer who trains four mornings per week at the local Aura Sportscentre, before school. “I start at 6.15 each morning that I have training with my coach John Fox from Summerhill,†she commented. Training also includes some Saturday sessions with the mainstream advanced group under the guidance of instructor Tara Beirne. There are also two evening sessions per week with Kells Swimming Club where she is a member of the mainstream development squad under the tutelage of Jeff Philips along with a monthly squad training session with the DS Ireland Team under national coach, Carol O'Brien. Funding is a major obstacle for disabled sport and last year the Meath Masters swimming club raised €8,000 to help fund the DS Ireland Team to travel to Taiwan.