John Shortt, the 200 Backstroke European champion, won his fourth gold medal of the three-day meet, winning the ultra-fast men's 50 metres freestyle in 21.89 seconds, a new junior Irish record on the final day of competition at the Irish Winter Nationals at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC).
Having taken the 50 metres sprint title, 18-year-old then won his fifth, taking gold in the 100m Individual title to add the 200 IM title he had collected on Friday, winning the shorter 100 distance in 54.32 seconds, which gave Shortt yet another Irish junior record
Winning the 100 IM also gave the Galway teenager his 21st Irish record, set at both senior and junior level which he accomplished across just three meets, the recent Munster, European and the Irish Winter Nationals at the NAC.
Sligo's Danielle Farrell then ensured that both 50m freestyle titles went to the West, winning the women's equivalent in 25.10 seconds while Isobel Kidney of Sundays Well touched home first in the final of the womens 100m Individual Medley in 1.01.61.
Earlier in the evening 19-year-old Kidney won the women's 50 breastroke in 31.37 seconds
Shortt didn’t contest the mens 200 Backstroke, the race in which he won a gold medal at the Europeans in Poland as he concentrated on other events at the NAC thus it gave the opportunity for Dolphin’s Neddie Irwin to take the winter title in a respectable 1.56.26
18-year-old Grace Davidson won the womens 200 backstroke gold medal in 2.06.14
Ellen Walshe who took down the Irish 200 freestyle Irish senior record twice on Saturday, won the 100 metres butterfly title in 56.25 seconds, outside her own Irish best time of 55.50 second the 22-year-old had set at the World Short Course Championships in Shanghai last year.
Jack Cassin of Dolphin won the mens race in a fast 51.42 seconds.
Walshe was the fastest qualifier for the womens 400 freestyle final, the final race of the three-day gala, but withdrew before the decider with the gold medal won by Bangor’s 13-year-old Chloe Stewart who surprised the faster qualifiers to win from lane 1 in 4.19.20
Cormac Rynn of Trident cruised to victory in the men's 400m, winning untroubled and unopposed in a respectable 3.48.07
Eoin Corby of Limerick, who set a new Irish senior record in winning the men's 200 breaststroke final on Saturday, added the 50 breast-stroke gold to that record-breaking swim, winning in a time of 26.73, shy of Alex Murphy’s 10-year old Irish senior record of 26.35, which he set at the 2015 Europeans.
