Three of Team Ireland’s youngest swimmers, John Shortt, Lottie Cullen and Evan Bailey, closed out the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest on Sunday with impressive performances including an Irish Senior and Junior Record from Shortt.
Ireland will leave Hungary with a Bronze medal courtesy of Shane Ryan in the 50m Backstroke, fifteen new Irish Records, eight of which came from Ellen Walshe, five top eight and eleven top sixteen swims.
On Sunday morning Shortt made his mark in the 200m Backstroke Heats clocking a new Irish Senior and Junior Record of 1:51.60, shaving a second off the 1:52.60 he had set just last month. The 17-year-old had also set an Irish Junior Record in the 100m Backstroke earlier in the week.
The time saw the National Centre Limerick swimmer second in his heat and twelfth overall in his first World Short Course Championships.
Speaking after his race Shortt said ‘I’m feeling good, two really good swims in one week, my past two World Championships some swims have been quite disappointing so to be coming here and getting two personal bests and being twelfth in the World is really cool, I’m really delighted with it.’
Looking ahead to his long course season goals he added ‘Just to keep swimming fast, I mean we have three summer competitions that I could be making with European Juniors, Worlds and World Juniors, hopefully my first World Juniors at the end of the season. So just making sure that I can translate all the skills that I’ve gotten from short course, the turns, the underwaters and make sure I bring them into the long course season. I do prefer long course to be honest, because obviously the Olympics aren’t short course, so yeah, I’m excited.’
Lottie Cullen, of Swim Belfast and now based at the University of Houston took an incredible five seconds off her 200m Backstroke best time to finish thirteenth in the World on her World Championships debut.
Cullen, who’s previous best stood at 2:10.35, touched in 2:05.57 to become Ireland’s second fastest ever swimmer in the event, behind double Olympian Melanie Nocher (2:04.29).
The 20-year-old spoke after the race ‘I’m really happy with it, I haven’t swum the event in about a year, so I just wanted to get in and get a good time, so I was quite surprised with the five second drop, I’m really happy with it.’
National Centre Limerick’s Evan Bailey had opened the morning for Ireland with a personal best swim in the 200m Freestyle. The New Ross man clocked 1:43.61 in his World Championships debut for fifth place in his heat and inside the top eighteen in the World.
Bailey spoke after the race ‘Yeah, I’m happy with it, I had a different goal in mind, I didn’t hit it, but a second faster than last year so I can’t be disappointed with it. To always progress I’m happy with and to learn from these guys around me, just everything is constructive and working towards getting faster on this stage and hopefully improve myself more.’
Speaking at the conclusion of the Championships, Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd was to say “This has been six exceptional days of racing from this Irish team, with so much achieved across 11 sessions of racing – and none more so that Shane Ryan taking home a World medal, his first in six years, and Ellen Walshe demonstrating her incredible resilience and versatility as she smashed Irish Senior Records on eight occasions across the meet. When you arrive at a World Championships without your two Olympic medallists on the team, some might have wondered if the nation would feature strongly; this group put that concern to bed very quickly. With 13 Irish Senior Records (from four athletes) and two Irish Junior Records, Irish swimming history got another re-write, and this blend of experience and youth ensured 5 Finals (or Top 8 equivalents) and 11 Semi-Finals (or Top 16 equivalents) across the course of the meet. The amazing performances at the Paris Olympics have given everyone who wears this prestigious green jacket an extra spring in their stride, and we can certainly look forward to the long course season in the new year with even more excitement, hope and determination.”
Irish swimmers now turn their attention to the long course (50m) season with the Irish Open Championships taking place in April (12th – 16th) ahead of a World Championships in Singapore in July.
Day 6 Heats Results – Sunday 15th December
| Male 200m Freestyle | Evan Bailey | 1:43.61 (18th) |
| Female 200m Backstroke | Lottie Cullen | 2:05.57 (13th) |
| Male 200m Backstroke | John Shortt | 1:51.60 (12th) ISR/IJR |
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