Even before Ellen Walshe wrote her own piece of golden history this was an unprecedented week of success for Irish swimming. Seven medals in the six days of the European Short-Course Championships in Lublin, Poland made sure of that.
Walshe was the only team member left in action in Sunday’s concluding session, where she became the first Irish woman to win gold in any European Short-Course event. It came in thrilling style too, the Dublin swimmer moving from fifth to first in the last two lengths of the 200 metres butterfly.
A magnificently timed effort, and Walshe knew it. Then just under 45 minutes after that frantic eight-length race, she was back in the pool for the final the 400m individual medley, coming close to adding her third medal there.
Sitting in fourth at halfway, she briefly moved up to second in the breaststroke, before her previous exertions began to take a toll in the final freestyle stroke, and she finished seventh. It was still a hugely rewarding week for the 24-year-old from Templeogue, and her coach Brian Sweeney, Walshe also winning silver in the 200m medley on Saturday night – improving on the bronze she won in that event two years ago in Otopeni, Romania.
READ MORE
That brought the Irish medal tally here to seven in all, including Daniel Wiffen’s three medals in the freestyle (bronze in the 400m and 800m, gold in the 1,500m), John Shortt’s gold in the 200m backstroke (in a world junior record), and Evan Bailey’s unexpected but no less deserving bronze in the 200m freestyle.
Walshe had come to Lublin in the form of her life, recently setting six Irish records (in the 200m butterfly, 200m medley and 400m medley) at the World Aquatics World Cup in Indiana in the US in October. In winning the 200m butterfly gold here, she produced another Irish record of 2:03.24. Race favourite Helena Back from Denmark was second in 2:03.56.
“I just had to hang on, but it just shows all the work I’ve put in has paid off,” said Walshe, who also swam a 400m medley heat on Sunday morning. “I’d a really successful World Cup, and I just tried to bring in some of that confidence, and race hard here. So yeah delighted with the medals.
“These moments don’t come very often, and to stand on top of the podium definitely doesn’t come very often. It’s my first gold medal on the international stage, to see my parents in the stand, it’s super special.
“The races are so close, it can change very quickly underwater. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, but you don’t really know you’re position until you hit the wall. I think I had a mission here I just wanted to complete. I stood on the podium here once before [in 2023], so very happy to move it up again.
“Seeing how good the guys have been on the team gives me a lot of confidence, knowing what I can do, and to see the team kill it is so good.”
Walshe went hard for another medal in the 400m medley, before settling for seventh in 4:38.51. Justina Kozan delighted the home crowd there with her late finishing kick to win gold in 4:28.56.
Whatever advantage comes with being the world record holder almost brought Wiffen to his second gold medal, before the Armagh swimmer had to settle for bronze in the 800m freestyle on Saturday night. He was back in the pool after successfully defending his 1,500m freestyle title in thrilling style on Thursday night, also winning bronze in the 400m, only this time there was no stopping Zalan Sarkany from Hungary, who won gold in 7:26.84.
Wiffen had blasted past Sarkany in the last 50m of the 1,500m freestyle, and despite chasing hard again from the halfway mark, Sarkany held on. Lucas Henveaux from Belgium, Wiffen’s new training partner in California, came through for silver in 7:28.03, Wiffen third in 7:30.14.
“Honestly I think that was the hardest swim if my life, I tried to come through at 400m, but had to kill myself basically,” said Wiffen. “Proud of myself how I came back, but not at how I lost that race.
“But I knew I’d be tired, I’ve come through a lot the last couple of weeks. So happy to be on the podium, it’s a massive bonus I won the other day, so I can’t complain. I didn’t see a medal in the 400m.”
Two years ago, Wiffen won this title with a world record of 7:20.46, but it’s just three months since the 24-year-old Wiffen underwent surgery on his appendix, also recently moving to a new training base in California. The Olympic 800m champion made his first big breakthrough in the 25-metre pool in Otopeni two years ago, winning the 400m-800m-1,500m treble.
Walshe had also stormed through to win silver in the 200m medley, her 2:04.78 just .03 off her Irish record. Dutch star Marrit Steenbergen won another gold medal there in a European record of 2:01.83.
Ireland’s men’s 4x50m medley relay was out earlier on Sunday, where Shortt broke his own Irish junior 50m backstroke record, clocking 23.28. With that the 18-year-old from Galway made it 12 Irish records, all for himself, in six days. Unprecedented times indeed.
