Kilkenny Swimming Club’s Maria Godden and Naomi Trait are in action today at the Irish National Team Trials at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
The girls were in the 100 metres freestyle preliminaries event earlier and Naomi finished up in third place with Maria in fifth.
Yesterday Maria finished third in the 100-metre backstroke.
Naomi is preparing now for the 200 metres freestyle event.
Keep an eye on results here with race fixtures here.
Finals
Tonight’s finals feature seven swimmers within half a second of Olympic consideration time.
There were impressive swims from Ellen Walshe, Calum Bain and Barry McClements highlighting the morning action.
Templeogue’s Ellen Walshe, who was the first Irish women under 1 minute in the 100m Butterfly in January 2020, posted the second-fastest time of her career, in her first competitive race since February 2020, to win the heats in 1:00.08, just off her Irish Record time of 59.54.
In the Men’s 50m Freestyle Calum Bain of Cookstown SC and Stirling University was just .03 off his best time (22.29), also posting a second-fastest career time ever in 22.32. Bain will be back this evening for the semi-final with both the Irish Senior Record of 22.14 and Olympic Consideration Time of 22.01 firmly in his sight.
Victoria Catterson and Erin Riordan battled it out in the Women’s 100m Freestyle heats with just .04 separating them going into this evening’s semi-final. Ards’ Catterson hit the wall first in 56.89 with National Centre Dublin and UCD’s Erin Riordan posting the best time of 56.93 for second place.
Paralympic swimmers
This morning’s final event saw Paralympic swimmers Barry McClements, Sean O’Riordan, Patrick Flanagan and Jonathan McGrath in the 100m Freestyle. Ards’ McClements took the win in 59.81, breaking the minute mark for the first time. For O’Riordan, Flanagan and McGrath, their main event, the 400m Freestyle will take place tomorrow (Thursday).
An exciting evening lies ahead with finals in the Men’s 200m Freestyle, Men’s and Women’s 100m Backstroke, Men’s and Women’s 100m Breaststroke, Men’s 200m Butterfly and the 800m Freestyle. Jack McMillan (200m Freestyle), Conor Ferguson and Danielle Hill (100m Backstroke), Eoin Corby and Niamh Coyne (100m Breaststroke) and Brendan Hyland (200m Butterfly) are all within half a second of the Olympic Consideration Time.
