A number of Irish records were shattered as Swim Ireland's Irish Short Course Swimming Championships got underway at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin on Thursday.
Last week, swimmers broke 20 national records at the European Short Course Championships in Glasgow, where Mona McSharry and Shane Ryan both took home bronze medals.
Tonight, Danielle Hill, Brendan Hyland and Daniel Wiffen set new national standard, national relay records also fell.
Hill, who broke the minute mark in the 100m backstroke for the first time in Glasgow, clocked 58.29 seconds to claim her first gold medal of the meet.
The Larne swimmer returned for a second gold in the 50m freestyle minutes later, recording a time of 24.78.
Wiffen opened the evening session with a new Irish record in the 800m freestyle.
Wiffen is only the second Irishman to break the eight-minute mark in the event, smashing through it in 7:54.15 to break Andrew Meegan’s 2013 record of 7:59.92.
Hyland, who broke the 400m individual medley Irish record on Thursday in Glasgow, took down the 200m individual medley in 1:56.74.
Templeogue's Ellen Walshe won the 200m butterfly in 2:09.94, Cillian Melly (NCL) was the gold medallist in the men’s event in 1:58.15.
Rory McEvoy was first home in the 100m backstroke in 53.59, David Thompson topped the podium in the 50m freestyle, while Ards’ Rebecca Reid was the 200m individual medley winner in 2:15.34.
With a continued focus on cementing relay team qualification for one or more of the events at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, opportunities to develop a stronger and more prominent relay culture are being taken as often as possible.
The Ireland men's and women’s 4x100m freestyle relay teams lowered the existing national records to 3:10.19. and 3:41.09 respectively.
