Ellen Walshe shatters two Irish 200m freestyle records at the Winter Championships
Updated / Saturday, 13 Dec 2025 20:08
Ellen Walshe continued to ride a wave of exceptional form, breaking the Irish senior 200m freestyle record not once but twice during day two of the Irish Winter Swimming Championships at Dublin’s National Aquatic Centre.
Fresh off her European title in Poland, the Templeogue swimmer first eclipsed Victoria Catterson’s 2023 best of 1:55.90 with a 1:55.23 in the morning heats, thereby claiming both the long-course and short-course Irish marks in the event.
Returning for the evening session as the fastest qualifier, Walshe assertively led the final from the start and sliced a further 1.51 seconds off her earlier time, demolishing the record that had stood for mere hours.
This marked Walshe’s second gold of the meet, following her victory in the women’s 100 metres freestyle on opening day at the Sport Ireland Campus, and it leaves the 22-year-old just outside the world top 10 in a discipline that isn’t her primary focus.
In other highlights, Limerick’s Eoin Corby lowered his own Irish senior 200m breaststroke record, touching in 2:05.76 to win and shave 0.13 seconds off the time he set at last week’s Europeans in Lublin.
Shark SC’s 17-year-old Niamh Connery claimed the women’s 200m breaststroke in 2:28.83.
European short course champion John Shortt secured two more golds at the NAC—winning both the men’s 100m backstroke (in 50.25 seconds, 0.15 behind his own Irish record) and the men’s 200m freestyle, following his record-breaking 200m individual medley on day one.
The Galway teenage sensation then produced superb underwater technique to glide to victory in the 200m freestyle in 1:46.07, a display that seemed almost effortless.
Lotte Cullen, the Irish record holder, demonstrated brilliant backstroke form to deny fastest qualifier Maria Godden in the women’s 100m backfinal, triumphing in 57.61 seconds.
Other golds on the day included Daragh Horgan of Limerick in the men’s 1500m freestyle (15:33.39) and Skye Austin-Burrows of Larne in the women’s 1500m free (17:14.91).
Emma Coulter from Ards claimed the two-length 50m butterfly in 26.77 seconds, while Lisburn’s Dylan Rigiste topped the men’s 50m fly podium with 23.71 seconds.
The meet’s second day closed with the 400m individual medley finals: Baltazar Allende (Templeogue) took the men’s title in 4:28.41, and Bangor’s Chloe Stewart won the women’s event in 4:54.75.
