Ellen Walshe took her gold medal tally to three at the Irish Open Swimming Championships with victory in the women’s 100m butterfly final.
The 25-year-old was first to touch the wall in Bangor with a time of 58.74 to add to her success in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley earlier this week.
The 2024 Olympic finalist Walshe had earlier set a new national record in the heats in the 200m freestyle with a heat time of 1:58.72, breaking her own record by 0.16.
Walshe decided to pull out the final which was won by 19-year-old Grace Davidson in 1.59.52, her second freestyle gold having broken the Irish record in winning the 100m title on Wednesday.
Unlike many other senior Irish internationals who specialise in one swimming discipline, Walshe competes in multi-events and is yet to be beaten this week in the three finals she has contested
“I think sometimes when you focus on one particular event, there’s so much pressure and baggage that comes with that,” she told RTÉ Sport.
“To be able to step away from that and race something else and just learn to just leave your brain at the block, just (to) be competitive is what I love to do. I never want to lose that side of it, so I love to enter different events and just enjoy that.”
Walshe’s fellow Paris Olympian Mona McSharry – pictured above – who had already won the 50m breaststroke title, was the fastest qualifier into 200m breaststroke final and showed that she is in terrific form despite being in heavy training, breaking her own Irish senior record set two years ago in a winning time of 2:22.22.
Jack Kelly, born in New York but who has now declared for Ireland, won the men’s 200m breaststroke gold in 2:12.55, tying up in the second half of the race as he attempted to break the Irish record in the event only to end some two seconds off Darragh Greene’s standard.
Olympic gold medallist Daniel Wiffen made the final of the men’s 200m freestyle but withdrew from the decider with Texas-based Evan Bailey, swimming for the National Centre in Limerick, winning the gold in a blistering 1:47.81, enough to qualify for the European Championships in Paris.
Teenager John Shortt, who won the 100m backstroke gold on Thursday in a new Irish record time, took the 50m backstroke in a blanket finish in a new championship record of 25.08 secs holding off both Conor Ferguson and Paddy Johnston in the final
Paris 2024 Olympian Danielle Hill led the qualifiers in the women’s 50m backstroke and duly won the gold medal in 28.43, just holding off Lottie Cullen, winner of the 100m backstroke earlier this week.
Jack Cassin of the National Centre in Limerick hunted down Bangor’s James Ward to win a cracking 100m butterfly final in 53.09, his second gold of the week having won the 200m butterfly title on Wednesday.
His winning time was good enough to qualify for this summer’s Europeans in France.