Ellen secures bronze in European Championships

ELLEN Walshe added her name to the list of now ten Irish medallists at the European Short Course Championships after she won bronze in the 400m Individual Medley, Otopeni, Romania on Tuesday.

The Templeogue swimmer clocked 4:29.64, just six tenths of a second off silver medallist Freya Colbert (4:29.04) of Great Britain.

Walshe who is the Irish record holder in the event in 4:26.52, a swim in which she won silver at the 2021 World Short Course Swimming Championships said: ‘It’s great, I can be a little hurt that I was faster than that previously but where I’m at in my training, heading into Paris, a European medal is a European medal, so I’m delighted.’

The 22-year-old went stroke for stroke with Colbert of Great Britain in the final 100m of the event, with Walshe saying ‘I’m pretty sure she has a stronger freestyle than me, I knew I was going to have to dig deep for it’.

Meanhile, Ellen was back in action on Wednesday, December 6th, in the 100m version of the event.

Freya Colbert of Great Britain (silver), Abbie Wood of Great Britain (gold) and Ellen Walshe of Ireland (bronze) during the medal presentations Photo by ©INPHO

Walshe clocked 1:00.20 to progress to the semi-final in tenth place overall and is looking forward to this semi-final.

‘It’s nice to have another swim tonight, the 100m IM is not something I race much, or anybody would race regularly, but it’s a quick speedy one and hopefully I’ll be faster tonight.’

In the 100m Breaststroke, Liam O’Connor was second in his heat in a best time of 1:00.25.

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