Mona McSharry continued the record-breaking spree at the Irish Open Swimming Championships in Bangor on Friday, setting the third fastest 200m breaststroke time in the world this year, a new Irish record.
The Sligo swimmer, based in Tennessee, dominated to clock 2:22.22, inside her previous mark of 2:22.49, also improving the championship record she set in Friday morning’s heats.
“The 200 breaststroke is that event where you never really know where it’s going to be on every day,” said McSharry, who won bronze in the 100m breaststroke at the Paris Olympics. “It’s just to nice to see the hard work in training pay off and be able to put together a really good race.”
Fresh from breaking his Irish 100m backstroke record on Thursday, John Shortt secured his second championship record of the week with a stunning performance in the 50m backstroke, winning in 25.08. Conor Ferguson, returning from a long injury lay-off, was second in 25.46, three hundredths of a second under the European Championships and Commonwealth Games consideration times for this summer.
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Danielle Hill claimed her first national title of the week with victory in the women’s 50m backstroke, the Larne swimmer clocking 28.43. Grace Davison also completed a freestyle double with victory in the 200m freestyle, the 18-year-old winning in 1:59.52 to break the two minute barrier for the first time in her career.
Evan Bailey completed the same freestyle double with victory in the 200m, clocking 1:47.81 to dip under the consideration time for the European Championships in August.
After setting a new Irish record in the 200m freestyle during the morning heats, Ellen Walshe withdrew from the final to focus on the 100m butterfly, where she secured her third national title of the week in 58.74.
And Jack Cassin added the 100m butterfly title to the 200m gold he claimed on Wednesday, winning in 53.06, while Jack Kelly won the 200m breaststroke gold to add to the 50m title he secured on Thursday.
