Four Ulster swimmers travelled to Barcelona, Spain, to compete in the 2025 Para Swimming World Series, the first time the event has been hosted in the city. Across the four days of competition, our three Paralympians from Paris last summer (Barry McClements, Deaten Registe, Dearbhaile Brady) and Siomha Brady (Performance Pathway Athlete) competed on the world stage.
Day one of the competition seen all four athletes race in the water across multiple events:
- 100m Freestyle (Barry McClements, Siomha Brady)
- 100m Breaststroke Dearbhaile Brady, Siomha Brady)
The standout swim for day one however was Deaten Registe’s 100m Breaststroke. After battling it out in a tough A Final and touching the wall in a time of 1:07.96, Registe secured the bronze medal!
Day two of competition (21st March) kicked off with Barry McClements entering the pool first in the 100m Butterfly, where he placed 5th overall in a final time of 1:02.16. Deaten Registe also swam the prelims of this event, placing 24th overall from the morning swim.
Day three started off once again with Barry McClements making waves in the water – this time in the 100m Backstroke – after a solid morning swim, he qualified for the B final that evening, where he placed 1st in a time of 1:05.72, taking over 1 second off his morning time of 1:06.90. Siomha Brady also swam the 100m Backstroke event on day three, where she finished 24th overall from the prelims.
Later that morning, Deaten, Siomha and Dearbhaile all swam the 200m Individual Medley respectively – all three athletes progressed from heats to finals. Registe qualified for the B final in the event, where he touched in a time of 2:24.86. Siomha Brady qualified for the B final and finished the final swim in a time of 3:27.49, whilst Dearbhaile Brady placed 1st in the Youth Final in a winning time of 3:29.30 (568 points).
The starting event for the final day of competition was the 50m Freestyle, where Dearbhaile Brady & Barry McClements took to the pool in Events 20 and 21. Brady finished the prelims in a time of 37.93 and qualified for the Youth final, whilst McClements touched in a time of 27.89, qualifying him for the B final. Both athletes went on to lower their times in the final (Brady – 37.47; McClements – 27.65).
Siomha Brady also swam in the day four heats in the 400m Freestyle, placing 11th after the prelims in a time of 6:04.28.
To round out day four of the World Para Series, Dearbhaile Brady swam the 50m Butterfly, where in the final, she came out with a gold medal in a winning time of 38.42.