MICHELLE SMITH coasted to a new Irish record in an international meet in Belgium at the weekend swimming on her own! Smith chopped an incredible 31 seconds off Carol Anne Heavey's 13 year old mark for 1500 metres.

Smith's Irish colleague at the Atlanta Olympics, Adrian O'Connor, could be said to have started a trend of swimming alone against the clock at a high profile event when he obliged in the 200 metres backstroke at the recent Leinster championships.

Triple Olympic gold medallist Smith found herself in the same position when nobody was available to challenge her over the 1500 metres at the Dutch sponsored event in Belgium. Smith agreed to swim it alone and her decision proved fortunate.

A good win over the world shortcourse champion in the 200 metres butterfly provided further evidence of Smith's current good form.

Meanwhile, O'Connor will lead a strong team which has been selected to compete in an Austrian international meet in Vienna at the weekend. The team travels on Thursday with justifiable hopes of doing well.

Included are Lee Kelleher and Chantal Gibney and the side is buttressed by Mark Craig, Graham Beegan, James Hand, David Roche and John Paul Williamson.

David Malone of Terenure College scored a very notable world record breaking win in the 200 metres backstroke event in the International Open championships for the disabled at Ponds Forge, Sheffield at the weekend. The record was previously held by the German competitor Detlef Schmidt.

Malone, was the only swimmer representing Ireland at the championships which included strong teams from the United States, Australia and Germany.