Swim Ireland’s Irish Open Championships and Olympic Trials concluded on Sunday evening with five individuals now having secured Olympic Qualification Times across nine events.
This week, Danielle Hill and Tom Fannon joined Daniel Wiffen, Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry as individual qualifiers.
Ireland have also qualified a Women’s and a Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay with selection to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
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Across an action packed five days, four Olympic Qualification Times were achieved from Hill, Fannon and Walshe, twenty-two swimmers achieved consideration times for the European Championships in Serbia in June, while seven Irish Senior and eight Irish Junior Records were set.
“After what has arguably been the best five days of domestic swimming racing that this island has seen, we can all feel highly satisfied with where Irish swimming is right now,” said Swim Ireland High Performance Director Jon Rudd.
“World Aquatics raised the bar quite considerably after Tokyo 2021 as to what it takes to be an Olympian, and we have a group of athletes who responded to this – some making the grade, and some agonisingly close – the smallest of margins – with seven Irish Senior Records and eight Irish Junior Records written and re-written across these days, the moments that matter.”
“We have a strong Olympic team and European Championships team that will come out of this final Trials, and we can look forward to those announcements in the days to come – followed swiftly by a highly charged and exciting summer for Irish aquatics.”
On Sunday, Shane Ryan once again came close to the Olympic Qualification Time of 48.34 in the 100m Freestyle Final. Swimming in front of a packed National Aquatic Centre Ryan swam 48.66. just outside the Irish Record of 48.49 he swam on Saturday. Ryan claimed gold ahead of Evan Bailey (49.58), who set a new Irish Junior Record of 49.40 in the event on Saturday, and 100m Butterfly Champion Max McCusker (49.98).
In the Men’s 1500m Freestyle Final Nathan Wiffen swam a brilliant fourteen second lifetime best to blow away the rest of the field. Wiffen had entered the competition with a best time of 15:21.11 and lowered that to 15:06.48 to win the national title in a new Championship Record (15:07.07) and consideration time for the European Championships.
The 22-year-old was just outside the Olympic Qualification Time of 15:00.99. Second place went to National Centre Limerick’s Denis O’Brien with Sean Bugler of Sundays Well claiming bronze in 16:41.50.
In the Women’s 50m Backstroke Final Danielle Hill came agonisingly close to breaking her own 50m Backstroke Irish Record. Hill, who has qualified for the Paris Games in the 50m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke, was just one hundredth of a second off the 27.64 she swam at the Ulster Championships three weeks ago, touching in 27.65 to win the national title. UCDs Jena Macdougald was the silver medallist in 29.03 with bronze going to 100m and 200m Champion Lottie Cullen of National Centre Ulster in 29.43.
Ellen Walshe, who secured an Olympic Qualification Time in this morning’s heats of the 400m Individual Medley in 4:38.05, cruised to victory in this evening’s final in 4.43.62. Templeogue’s Walshe was followed home by Limerick’s Hannah O’Connor in 5:06.70 and European Juniors qualifier Niamh Connery of Shark (5:12.65). Walshe’s younger sister Eva was also competing in the final, finishing sixth in 5:21.57.
