2019 IRISH SC SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 12th – Sunday, December 15th
- National Aquatic Centre Dublin
- SCM
- Recap #1
- Live Results/Meet Mobile
The 2019 Irish Short Course Swimming Championships wrapped up over the weekend, concluding an incredible run of 54 senior and junior national records being broken by Irish men and women over the past 2 weeks.
Record Highlights
In addition to Danielle Hill‘s newly-minted 58.29 100m backstroke national record notched on the first day of competition, the Larne swimmer continued her siege with the 100m free. She dominated the final in a time of 53.81, crushing the previous Irish standard of 54.34 Mona McSharry put on the books in 2018.
World Championships bronze medalist Shane Ryan also continued his record-breaking campaign, setting a new mark in the men’s 50m fly of 22.96. In doing so, the former Penn State swimmer became the first man from his nation to dip under 23-seconds in the event, having overtaken Barry Murphy’s 2013 Irish record of 23.28.
The women’s 50m fly saw Tempelogue’s Ellen Walshe reap gold, logging yet another Irish record. The 18-year-old lowered her own previous lifetime best and national standard of 26.65 to 26.10 for gold. She followed that up with a new national record in the 100m fly, becoming the first Irish swimmer to break 59 seconds with her winning effort of 58.81.
Brendan Hyland made some moves as well, establishing a new national record in the 100m fly. He logged a mark of 51.38 to slice .16 off of his own previous standard of 51.54 he established in 2018.
National Centre Dublin’s Niamh Coyne joined the record-breaking party as well, overtaking Fiona Doyle’s mark in the 200m breast. Slashing almost a second off of Doyle’s 2015 time of 2:23.64, Coyne produced a result of 2:22.77 to get atop the podium.
Of the record-breaking performances by Irish swimmers over the past 2 weeks, National Performance Director Jon Rudd stated, “The four days in Dublin bring to an end a very exciting and productive fortnight for Irish swimming. We thought that we had achieved something special when we returned from the European Championships last week with 2 medals and 20 new Irish records but to break another 34 this week to make it 54 in total is quite exceptional, particularly when we are re-breaking several of those records that are only a few days old.
“There has been a buzz in and around the NAC this week; more clubs and coaches are progressing their athletes than we would have seen before and there is a rising depth amongst our ranks in most events. There has been some great work done by Irish swimming this month and we look forward to Olympic year and how this confidence because of our progress can transfer from January onwards.”