Walshe and Bain Highlight Day 2 Heats at Irish National Team Trials

Walshe and Bain Highlight Day 2 Heats at Irish National Team Trials

Tonight’s Finals Feature Seven Swimmers Within Half a Second of Olympic Consideration Time

Swim Ireland’s Irish National Team Trials continued at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre this morning with impressive swims from Ellen Walshe, Calum Bain and Barry McClements highlighting the morning action.

Templeogue’s Ellen Walshe, who was the first Irish women under 1 minute in the 100m Butterfly in January 2020, posted the second fastest time of her career, in her first competitive race since February 2020, to win the heats in 1:00.08, just off her Irish Record time of 59.54.

Speaking after the race Walshe commented “It was great to get back racing. It’s not a bad start and I’ve no emotion about it. I’m not happy or sad or disappointed about it. I thought it would be better but I learn from it and I’m just looking to the next one tonight.”

“I probably won’t prep any differently.” she continued “I felt like my prep was good, my warm up was good, and I felt ready to go. I’d like to have been under 60 seconds this morning, and I felt ready for it, but it just wasn’t there. I don’t want to be out any faster, I just want to be back better. I just wasn’t back fast enough this morning and I was hurting. I think the first race of a meet is always about getting the nerves out of the way.”

In the Men’s 50m Freestyle Calum Bain of Cookstown SC and Stirling University was just .03 off his best time (22.29), also posting a second fastest career time ever in 22.32. Bain will be back this evening for the semi-final with both the Irish Senior Record of 22.14 and Olympic Consideration Time of 22.01 firmly in his sight.

Victoria Catterson and Erin Riordan battled it out in the Women’s 100m Freestyle heats with just .04 separating them going into this evening’s semi-final. Ards’ Catterson hit the wall first in 56.89 with National Centre Dublin and UCD’s Erin Riordan posting a best time of 56.93 for second place.

This morning’s final event saw Paralympic swimmers Barry McClements, Sean O’Riordan, Patrick Flanagan and Jonathan McGrath in the 100m Freestyle. Ards’ McClements took the win in 59.81, breaking the minute mark for the first time. For O’Riordan, Flanagan and McGrath, their main event, the 400m Freestyle will take place tomorrow (Thursday).

An exciting evening lies ahead with finals in the Men’s 200m Freestyle, Men’s and Women’s 100m Backstroke, Men’s and Women’s 100m Breaststroke, Men’s 200m Butterfly and the 800m Freestyle. Jack McMillan (200m Freestyle), Conor Ferguson and Danielle Hill (100m Backstroke), Eoin Corby and Niamh Coyne (100m Breaststroke) and Brendan Hyland (200m Butterfly) are all within half a second of the Olympic Consideration Time.

Tonight’s finals start at 5.30pm and will be live on RTE Player.

NOTES:

  • The Trials are primarily open to Performance athletes currently training in recognised onshore training bubbles in the National Centre (Dublin) at the National Aquatic Centre, the National Centre (Limerick) at the University of Limerick and at Bangor Aurora Aquatic & Leisure Complex, as well as those identified athletes of similar standing who are living and training offshore.
  • The competition will comprise of a full Olympic individual event programme with heats, semi-finals, and finals in all 50m, 100m and 200m events and heats and finals in 400m, 800m and 1500m events. It will give our top athletes several qualification opportunities and will provide some very exciting swims over the course of the meet.
  • The meet will be live streamed on RTE Player and will be available to view worldwide.
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