Dec 12,2024
Shane Ryan smashed his longstanding Irish record in the 100m freestyle at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest to advance to the semi-finals of the short-course competition in the Hungarian capital.
Contesting the 11th and final of the morning heats, Ryan clocked 46.23 seconds to finish third behind Maxime Grousset of France and Egor Kornev of Russia, with the latter competing as a neutral athlete.
Ryan's previous Irish record was a time of 46.68, which he set at the Irish Championships five years ago.
The 30-year-old will be back in action at the Duna Arena this evening for the first of the semi-finals at 4.58pm Irish time and takes to the blocks in lane three after ranking sixth fastest in the heats.
Jordan Crooks of the Cayman Islands, who is better known for his prowess over 50m, topped the timesheets in qualifying as he set a new championship record of 44.95.
Speaking after his race, Ryan said: "I knew the record was going to come down as I've been working more on freestyle, but that’s my first full 100 metres since the Olympic Games.
"When I was training I never did a full 100 metres, so it was a bit sloppy, but we can clean it up and try and sneak under 46.
"My main thing is that I naturally have a lot of speed. I barely tried on that first 25 metres and just tried to put together a good race, a clean race.
"I think that’s really important, not really focussing on the time or anyone else. Like, yeah, I was looking at everyone but they were just there to help me get along, but I had a plan in place and it worked out, so I just need to try clean it up a little bit more."
Danielle Hill, Niamh Coyne and Eoin Corby also provided Irish interest in the pool this morning, but all three swimmers failed to advance from their respective heats.
Hill clocked 53.66 to finish eighth in her heat of the 100m freestyle, Coyne was ninth in her 100m breaststroke heat in 1:07.40, with Corby clocking 58.63 in ninth in his 100m breaststroke heat.
