Fifteen-year-old Maria Treacy, from Garrison, has been selected for the Irish Junior Surf Lifesaving team. A first for Fermanagh, and indeed the first time that Ireland will be officially represented at a junior international competition of this calibre.
Maria will travel to France and compete with the cream of Ireland's crop in Cannet En Roussilion in the four-day competition, which starts next Thursday, 30th August.
A big achievement at such a young age, Maria is committed to the task ahead and is relishing the opportunity to represent Ireland on an international scale. The achievement is all the greater considering that Maria will be one of the youngest team members on what is an U-19 panel.
No stranger to competition, the Mount Lourdes student is a member of the Lakelanders Swimming Club, which has acted as catalyst in propelling her to greater sporting heights. As well as being a strong swimmer, she trains twice a week in surf lifesaving, her main base being Rossnowlagh Beach.
Maria is also one of few Fermanagh people who can lay claim to being an All-Ireland medalist, having won the junior All-Ireland surf lifesaving competition with the Donegal team in August last year.
Having been selected for the national trials in Wicklow earlier this year, the Gortnalee girl fought off stiff competition to secure her final place and book her seat for international duty.
While Maria says that the brains behind surf lifesaving locally is Seamus O'Neill, the Irish team will be coached on the French trip by Oisin McGrath and managed by Joan Morton.
Oisin explains that the competition is broken into two areas; the pool section and the beach section. Maria will be taking part in both sections of the competition and her events are expected to present a gruelling challenge.
"The main events that Maria will be competing in over in France are the 90 metre beach sprints and the Beach Flags event," he explained.
"Both of these events are land beach-based but require a lot of speed and power and are generally the more exciting events of a competition.
"The 90 metre beach sprint is straightforward, the competitors will line up, usually in heats of nine people, and sprint 90 metres to the finish line. Different competitors usually have various preferences with regard to sand type and whether it is soft sand or hard sand. Competitors are knocked out in each sprint until there are nine competitors left for the final sprint."
The second event that Maria will do is the Beach Flags event.
"This is definitely one of the highlights of any lifesaving competition. The competitors will lie down with their hands under their chin, elbows out and heels together. On the command 'heads down', the competitors rest their chins onto their hands and once the starter blows the whistle, they have to pop up, turn around and sprint to their 20 metres and grab a flag (a small tube approximately one foot long). This is a knockout system, so there is always one less flag than there are competitors. One will be knocked out each time and this continues until they get a winner.
"Because of her good sprinting ability on the sand, Maria will play an important part in the four by 90 metres beach sprint relay. She will probably provide a solid finishing leg for this event."
During the pool section, Maria will also take part in a number of the relays that have yet to be decided. These vary from a 200m obstacle swim, a 50m mannequin carry, a 100m rescue medley and a 200m super lifesaver.
