Ellen Walshe secures Olympic qualification in the 400m medley

SWIM Ireland’s Irish Open Championships and Olympic Trials concluded on Sunday evening with five individuals now having secured Olympic Qualification Times across nine events.

Among them was Ellen Walshe who starred on the final morning of swimming at the Irish Open Championships and Olympic Trials as the Templeogue swimmer secured a second Olympic qualification Time in the 400m Individual Medley.

Ellen, who secured an Olympic Qualification Time in the morning’s heats of the 400m Individual Medley in 4:38.05, cruised to victory in this evening’s final in 4.43.62.

Walshe was followed home by Limerick’s Hannah O’Connor in 5:06.70 and European Juniors qualifier Niamh Connery of Shark (5:12.65).

Walshe’s younger sister Eva was also competing in the final, finishing sixth in 5:21.57.

Ellen has already qualified for the Games in the 200m Individual Medley, swam an impressive 4:38.05 in the 400m IM, just one tenth of a second outside the Irish Record of 4:37.94 she set three weeks ago at the Leinster Championships.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Championships, Swim Ireland Performance Director Jon Rudd said ‘“After what has arguably been the best five days of domestic swimming racing that this island has seen, we can all feel highly satisfied with where Irish swimming is right now.

“World Aquatics raised the bar quite considerably after Tokyo 2021 as to what it takes to be an Olympian, and we have a group of athletes who responded to this – some making the grade, and some agonisingly close – the smallest of margins – with seven Irish Senior Records and eight Irish Junior Records written and re-written across these days, the moments that matter.

“We have a strong Olympic team and European Championships team that will come out of this final Trials, and we can look forward to those announcements in the days to come – followed swiftly by a highly charged and exciting summer for Irish aquatics.”

On Saturday, Ellen swam her second fastest time ever in the 100m Butterfly Super Final and her first national title of the week in 58.07 seconds.

Elsewhere, in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke Final Ellie McCartney won her second gold medal, adding to 200m Individual Medley gold from earlier in the week.

McCartney of National Centre Limerick touched in a European Championships consideration time of 2:29.20 ahead of National Centre Dublin’s Niamh Coyne (2:30.46) from Tallaght and Limerick’s Olwyn Cooke (2:32.70).

Holly McInerney, who won 1500m Freestyle silver and 400m Freestyle bronze, completed her collection of medals with gold in the 800m Freestyle Final.

The Templeogue swimmer touched in 9:16.34 ahead of Bangor’s Eva Hand (9:21.09) and Kilkenny’s Nessa Godden (9:25.62).