John Shortt, one of three Irish gold medallists at the recent European Short Course championships in Poland, showed that he had lost none of that form as he set yet another national record on day one of the Irish Winter Swimming Championships meet at the NAC in Dublin.
Having cruised through the morning heats of the men's 200m Individual Medley, the 18-year-old blasted his way through to the gold medal in a time of 1:55.80, cutting 0.96 of a second off the old time set by Brendan Hyland in 2019.
The Galway swimmer pulled away from the rest of the ten finalists at the halfway mark and impressively set his 19th Irish record of the last few weeks, part of a record-breaking run which peaked when the teenager became European Short Course champion in the men's 200m backstroke in Lublin.
Cormac Rynn held off Charlie Cassidy for the silver, behind the commanding Shortt. All three medallists train at the National Centre in Limerick.
Shortt is back in the water on day two of the NAC meet on Saturday, swimming the heats of the men’s 100m backstroke and the 200m freestyle.
Isobel Kidney (2:15.25) won the gold in the women’s 200m IM final.
Ellen Walshe, who took gold in the 200 butterfly in Poland, swam the final of the women’s blue riband, the 100m freestyle, and took gold in a fast 53.18 seconds, tying up in the last few metres to be just outside the 53.03 Irish senior record set by Danielle Hill in the 2023 Irish Winter Nationals.
Cormac Rynn of Trident Swimming club, won the men’s 100m free gold in 49.12 seconds.
Elsewhere, Lottie Cullen, who became the first Irish woman through the 57-second barrier in the 100m backstroke at the BUCS Short Course Championships in Sheffield last month, won 50m backstroke gold in 26.77 seconds, 0.44 of a second shy of Danielle Hill’s Irish senior record.
Paddy Johnson of Ards took victory in the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.32 seconds.
Other gold medallists at the NAC included Larne’s Skye Austin-Burrows who won the women’s 800m freestyle (8.59.47) while Limerick's Daragh Horgan won the men’s 800m freestyle (8.01.37).
Jack Cassin was an impressive winner of the men’s 200m butterfly in a quick 1.54.44 while Alana Burns-Atkin (Bangor) won the women’s equivalent in 2.12.44.
Eoin Corby who was part of the 11-strong Irish team at the recent Europeans in Poland was an easy winner of the men’s 100m breastroke in 58.60 seconds while the women’s gold went to Ava Jones of Portmarnock in 1.08.26.
