Dec 11,2024
Ellen Walshe set two Irish records as she booked places in a semi-final and final on the first day of the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest.
The Dubliner took over a second and a half off her own 200m individual medley national record as she qualified sixth for tonight's final (5.01pm) in a time of 2:06.50.
Half an hour earlier, Walshe had lowered her senior 50m butterfly record from 25.90 to 25.65 seconds and advanced to this afternoon's semi-final (4.43pm) in 14th place.
The 23-year-old said: 'I'm delighted. I’ve raced a lot of short course since the start of my season in September. There’s no pressure, there’s no qualifying for any meets so you just have to get up and race.
"I absolutely love short course (25m). I train it every day of the week so I enjoy it and I think this meet off the Olympics is a nice bounce back for me."
It wasn't such good news for Olympian Danielle Hill, who failed to progress from the heats of her main event, the women's 100m backstroke; her third-fastest time of 57.95 seconds (sixth in her heat) was only enough for 19th overall.
Hill was a silver medallist at the European short-course championships in June in a time over two seconds slower. The Larne swimmer returns to action on Wednesday in the 100m freestyle.
Galway's John Shortt lowered his own recent junior Irish record to 51.21 seconds but also fell outside a top-16 place in the men's 100m backstroke while Max McCusker (23.09) was 32nd in qualifying in the men's 50m butterfly.
National Centre Limerick 17-year-old Shortt returns on Sunday for his favoured event, the 200m backstroke, while McCusker will be back in action on Friday in the 100m butterfly heats.
Nathan Wiffen makes his debut appearance at a World Championships in the 'fastest heat' (5.50pm) of the 1500m freestyle this evening.
