Hyland captures silver at Edinburgh International
BRENDAN Hyland’s impressive start to the new year continued at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet last weekend.
Incorporating the British Championships, this competition saw the Tallaght Swim Club star finish second behind Federico Brudisso in the 100m Butterfly with a very solid time of 53.74.
Tallaght Swim Club's Brendan Hyland won silver in the 100m Fly at the Edinburgh International
This performance follow-ed up on his double gold in the 100m and 200m Butterflly at the Dave McCullagh meet in Bangor last month and sets him up for the Irish Open at the NAC at the start of April when he will hope to make the times for the national squad that will contest the European Games back in Scotland in August.
While he was pleased with the podium finish, Hyland has been even more encouraged by the way he has progressed under the tutelage of new coach Ben Higson who has adjusted his approach to major competition at this early stage in the year.
Indeed looking back on his achievements in Edinburgh, Hyland explained “This was quite good because I was training right up to this and I didn’t rest because I have the Irish Open coming up.
“I competed in the Dave McCullagh meet a couple of weeks before and won two gold medals. I did 53.96 in the 100m Fly and 2.00.04 in the 200m Fly so those times were pretty good.
“I have a new coach [Higson] and he had me concentrating on strength work so it was good to be doing those times even when I felt tired.
“I wanted to move that into Edinburgh and get better and I felt that went well.
“I raced in the 200m Fly on the Thursday and the 100m Fly on Sunday and I wasn’t far off my PB which was good because I had continued to train and do gym work in between [those two races].
“They combined the Edinburgh International and the British Champion-ships so you had a big competitive field there. There were 18-year-olds looking to get their times for the European Juniors.
“It was a really good competition because it was so competitive. There was less than a second separating the top six finishers in my final and that’s great preparation for European competition, to have other swimmers so close and pushing you,” he told The Echo.
Hyland will continue to train for the next week or so before tapering down ahead of the Irish Open next month.
Set to contest both the 100m and 200m Fly together with possibly the 100m Freestyle in the NAC, he has further reason to be confident of a strong showing here after having had his tonsils removed at Christmas.
Indeed this has been a long-running problem that has plagued him right up until the European Short Course Championships in Copenhagen only back in December.
“Since getting them out I’ve had ten weeks of training without interruption and that’s been great. I’m feeling really good now,” said Hyland.
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