Northern Ireland’s swimmers delivered a string of standout performances on the opening morning of competition, with lifetime bests, season bests, and two finals berths secured across the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and relay events.
Lottie Cullen and Grace Davison put Northern Ireland firmly in the mix for tonight’s 200m backstroke final after a superb morning in the pool.
Cullen, racing in Heat 1 of 3, went in ranked on a season’s best of 2:12.23 from April’s Irish Open and Commonwealth Games Trials. She went stroke-for-stroke with Australia’s Hannah Fredericks in a fast opening heat, touching the wall in 2:12.23 to match her lifetime best.
Two heats later, Davison made it two for two from Team NI in this event. Entering the meet in a time of 2:12.36, she produced a lifetime-best swim of 2:12.24 to close out the heats session.
The pair finished 6th and 7th fastest overall, booking their places in tonight’s final.
Paddy Johnston produced the swim of the morning in the men’s 50m backstroke, smashing his lifetime best. Seeded on 25.65 from the April trials, Johnston stormed to 25.38 in Heat 3 of 5 — nearly three tenths of a second faster than his previous mark.
Conor Ferguson also impressed in the day’s final heat, touching in 25.48, just 0.02 seconds off his season’s best.
Both Johnston (11th) and Ferguson (12th) advance to tonight’s semi-final.
Alana Burns-Atkin narrowly missed her lifetime best in the 50m butterfly heats, swimming out of lane 2 in Heat 6 of 7. Entered on 27.16, she clocked 27.67 to finish 16th overall — enough to progress to tonight’s semi-final.
Competing in the S10 category despite being classified S9, Barry McClements produced an exceptional swim in the morning’s S10 100m Butterfly heat, clocking a season’s best of 1:01.92 — well inside his entry time of 1:02.38.
Northern Ireland’s relay quartet of Danielle Hill (56.14), Emily Hughes (55.58), Ellie McCartney (57.01) and Victoria Catterson (55.35) finished 3rd in Heat 1, enough to secure 6th place overall and a spot in tonight’s final.