Ellen Walshe continued her sensational form breaking the 200m freestyle Irish senior record, not once, but twice on day two of the Irish Winter swimming championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
Fresh from her European title in Poland, the Templeogue swimmer first eclipsed Victoria Catterson's 2023 record of 1:55.90 with a 1:55.23 clocking in the morning heats.
She now holds both the long and short course Irish records in the event.
Returning for the later session as the fastest qualifier, Walshe dominated the decider from the off and shaved another 1.51 seconds off her heat time, destroying the record which had stood for only half a day.
It was Walshe’s second gold medal of the meet, adding to her win in the women’s 100 metres freestyle on the opening day of competition at the Sport Ireland Campus and puts the 22-year-old just outside the top 10 in the world rankings in an event that is not one of her specialised swims.
Another record-breaking swim came when Limerick's Eoin Corby lowered his own Irish senior 200 metre breaststroke time, winning in 2:05.76, taking 0.13 of a second off the old time that Corby set in last week's Europeans in Lublin.
17-year-old Niamh Connery of Shark SC, won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:28.83
European short course gold medallist John Shortt, won his second and third gold medals at the NAC, taking victory in the men’s 100 metres backstroke as well as the men’s 200 freestyle.
The 18-year-old won the 100 backstroke in a time of 50.25 seconds - just 0.15 of a second off his own Irish record - adding to his record-breaking win in the 200 metres individual medley set on the opening day of the meet.
The Galway swimmer then showed wonderful underwater technique to effortlessly win the 200 free, cruising to victory in 1:46.07, the performance looked effortless for the Irish teenage swimming sensation.
Lotte Cullen, the Irish record holder, also showed brilliant technique to deny fastest qualifier Maria Godden the gold in the final of the women’s 100m backstroke, the 21-year-old winning in a time of 57.61 seconds.
Other gold medal winners were Limerick's Daragh Horgan who took the men’s 1500m freestyle (15:33.39) while Larne’s Skye Austin-Burrows won the women’s race in 17:14.91
Emma Coulter of Ards won the two-length 50m butterfly in 26.77 seconds, while the men’s 50 went to Lisburn’s Dylan Rigiste whose time of 23.71 seconds was enough to claim the top step on the podium.
The final two races of day two were the 400m individual medley, with gold in the men's race going to Baltazar Allende of Templeogue (4:28.41).
Bangor’s Chloe Stewart took the women’s 400 IM winter title in 4:54.75.
