WITH Grainne Murphy moving back to her native Wexford to resume her training, the future of the high performance centre at the UL Arena is still up in the air.
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Olympic swimmer Murphy (19) had been training at UL and her family was living in Castletroy since she was 13, but with Swim Ireland planning a radical overhaul of their elite system and her renowned coach Ronald Claes being let go by the organisation, she took the decision to leave Limerick.
Murphy’s short-term future is now clear but the saga surrounding UL as a high performance base continues.
The decision by Swim Ireland last September not to renew Claes’ contract disappointed the university, who had not been informed of the decision beforehand despite investing money in the Belgian coach.
The swimming governing body later announced plans for a major review of its operations, including a proposal to locate all of its’ highest-profile swimmers to the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
Despite giving assurances to UL that the University Arena would remain a high performance venue, any move by Swim Ireland to centralise their senior internationals would see the Limerick facility downgraded to a satellite training hub for junior elites.
UL has invested heavily in providing a top-class training base on campus and officials from the University Arena have notified Swim Ireland that they would not accept their programme being downgraded.
They have also requested the organisation to hire a coach of similar international stature to Claes.
