John Shortt was the star of the opening night of Finals at the Irish Open Championships in Dublin with the 18-year-old securing a qualification time for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, while Danielle Hill also cemented her qualification for the July Championships.
Swimming in the second 100m Backstroke semi-final, Shortt, who had set a new Irish Junior Record of 54.25 in this morning’s heats, swam a blistering 53.90 for another junior record and a spot in Singapore. The European Junior 200m Backstroke Champion and 100m silver medallist, who is also qualified for this Summer’s European Aquatics Junior Championships, is now just .17 outside of Shane Ryan’s Irish Senior Record of 53.73 and will have another go at it in Sunday’s Final.
Speaking after the race the National Centre Limerick swimmer said ‘I’m more surprised is the biggest word I would use, just because 100 back wouldn’t really be my thing, you know my focus for the year would be the 200m, so to be 53. there I’m more surprised than anything else and just delighted as well, because trials last year was a different story on that sort of pressure and all that stuff, so to come into this trials was kind of not no pressure, but just to actually be able to enjoy it and enjoy what I do is the biggest thing that I took away from last year. So, I’m just really happy.’
Having secured a qualification time for Singapore at the Olympic Games in Paris, Danielle Hill solidified her place with a time of 1:00.67 in the Female 100m Backstroke Semi-Finals and will be the top seed for Sunday’s Final.
Evan Bailey broke one minute 48 seconds in the 200m Freestyle for the second time on Saturday evening, clocking 1:47.26 to lead the qualifiers for Sunday’s Final. Bailey’s National Centre Limerick team-mate Cormac Rynn was the only other swimmer under 1:50 in 1:49.88.
Having gotten her job done with World Aquatics Championships qualification times secured in the 200m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly on Saturday morning Ellen Walshe withdrew from the semi-finals of both events and will be back in action in the 100m Butterfly heats on Monday morning. In her absence, Ards’ Paris Olympian Grace Davison, who secured European Aquatics Junior Championships qualification in the heats, leads the qualifiers for Sunday’s 200m Individual Medley Final in 2:15.82, while National Centre Ulster’s Alana Burns-Atkin locked in the centre lane for the 200m Butterfly Final in 2:18.05.
Sunday morning will see Mona McSharry return to race in Ireland for the first time since the European U23 Championships in 2023, the Olympic bronze medallist competes in the 100m Breaststroke. Olympic semi-finalist Tom Fannon will swim the 50m Freestyle. As well as the Female 100m Breaststroke and Open 50m Freestyle heats, swimmers will compete in the Open 100m Breaststroke, Female 100m Freestyle and Female 100m Butterfly.