Ellen Walshe impressed her coach Brian Sweeney at the World Swimming Championships
Walshe has successful world swimming c’ships
TEMPLEOGUE Swimmer Ellen Walshe’s World Swimming Championships was a successful one overall with the swimmer making appearances in two world finals across the duration of the competition.
The first would be the 200m IM (Individual Medley) which sees participants race across four strokes over a series of 50m chunks, these being front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.
Walshe would finish eighth in the world in the 200m IM and Butterfly and almost made it to the final of the 400m IM finishing fifth in her heat and ninth overall in the event despite racing one of her fastest ever swims.
Her coach in Templeogue Brian Sweeney spoke on her achievements.
“Ellen’s over at the world championships racing in the heats trying to break an Irish record to make a final in events she hasn’t raced in before and then come back and swim finals in events she’s just not been in.
‘Ellen’s after making world championship finals in events she’s never been in before and breaking Irish records to make those finals.
‘I spoke to her and said look, every one of the people in that final has been quicker, to get to the final is the achievement. Performance in the final isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for.”
Speaking on the result of her performance in the final heat and the event overall. Walshe seems satisfied with her performance, taking notice of the advice from her coach.
“I probably didn’t expect it to be so fast,” Walshe said of her heat. “I think even when I touched the wall, I was surprised at my time, never mind coming in fifth, but I’ll definitely take it on day eight (of the competition).
‘I’ve had many swims in my system, so I think I said to the team this morning if I could even be 4:41 I’d be delighted, so I think to see a 4:38 on the board, I was pretty surprised.”
“I’m delighted. I’ve had a quite successful Worlds, I’ve made two finals, and I think to come ninth today, I’ll take it. There’s definitely loads of learnings to make as well.”
