Ellen Walshe took over a second off her own Irish record in the 200m IM semi-final at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in the process qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
Her time of 2:10.92 was well inside the Paris qualifying time of 2:11.47, but unfortunately just barely outside what was needed to progress to the final.
She went into the semi-final 16th overall and finished in 9th.
“I’m delighted,” said the 21-year-old Templeogue swimmer, “I was pretty nervous this morning coming into it and tonight I got the chance to do it again and I was like, just take the opportunity and enjoy it. I went out and it was the easiest swim of my life I think.”
“It was hard this morning because you gave it 100% from the start and you didn’t quite get what you wanted out of it, and you think, do I have anything left in this? And tonight I thought, you have nothing to lose, keep the faith and believe in yourself. And I was out in a side lane tonight and I just enjoyed every moment of it.”
Meanwhile, the Irish 4x100m freestyle relay team — Mona McSharry, Erin Riordan, Danielle Hill, and Victoria Catterson — swam 3:41.75 to break their own two-year-old record by two and a half seconds.