Shane Ryan, Ellen Walshe Among Racers Headed To McCullagh International

2023 MCCULLAGH INTERNATIONAL

• Friday, February 24th – Sunday, February 26th
• Aurora Complex, Bangor, Northern Ireland
• LCM (50m)
• Psych Sheets

The 2023 McCullagh International kicks off from Bangor, Northern Ireland on Friday. The long course meet expects several of the nation’s top athletes to take to the Aurora Complex pool including Shane Ryan and Ellen Walshe.

29-year-old Ryan is entered in the 50m back, 100m back and 100m butterfly events.

As Ireland forewent the 2022 Short Course World Championships, Ryan last raced at the Irish Winter Championships in December where he logged performances of 23.61 in the 50m back and 23.03 in the 50m fly in short course.

As for Walshe, the University of Tennessee swimmer is currently not competing for the Vols. In fall 2022, SwimSwam reported that Walshe would be staying in her home country of Ireland and taking classes online for the fall semester as opposed to continuing to compete for the University of Tennessee.

Then in January Tennesse confirmed that Walshe’s status for the spring semester of the 2022-23 NCAA season was still to be determined, stating, “Walshe continues to be monitored by medical professionals in Ireland, and it will be a couple more weeks before we know whether or not she will be able to return and compete for the spring semester.”

While the school couldn’t comment directly on the nature of Walshe’s medical condition, SwimSwam learned that she had been suffering from chronic fatigue since last year’s SEC Championship meet.

Walshe recently raced at the Lisbon Invitational where she topped the women’s 200m IM event in a time of 2:14.21.

Additional key athletes entered in the McCullagh International include Calum Bain, Danielle Hill, Eoin Corby, Nathan Wiffen and Niamh Coyne.