Walshe smashes through more barriers in Lisburn

By Stephen Leonard

TEMPLEOGUE Swim Club’s Ellen Walshe continued her record-breaking form as she smashed her way to two Irish Senior titles at last weekend’s National Short Course Championships in Lisburn.

The 15-year-old competitor only recently set a new Irish Junior 100m and 200m Butterfly records and was determined to deliver again as she headed north with 14 of her team mates.

She posted an Irish junior best of 2:11.51 in the 200m Butterfly, beating the old record she had set some three weeks ago at the Leinster Championships and subsequently taking the title.

And she followed that up by shaving more than half a second off the Junior record she had recently broken- the new standard of 1:00.53 being tantalisingly close to breaking the 60-second barrier and that was good enough for third place overall.

She set up another great heat swim in the 200m IM before smashing her PB in the final to finish third.

The final day of racing saw Walshe open her account with a superbly controlled heat in the 400IM, before team mate Leah Martin also posted a huge PB to see both girls make the Finals in the event.

Walshe dominated the ‘A’ Final to win gold, subsequently defending her Irish Senior title in this event in a new PB of 4:49 to add to Martin’s PB from the ‘B’ Final.

In the 200BC Evan Rossiter, Ethan Brady and Greg Sinnott all set great new PBs in the event, Rossiter taking three seconds off his time to qualify as reserve for the Finals.

In the 200BF Robyn Lynch made the ‘B’ Final, finishing third in a new PB while Sean McNicholl also posted a PB to qualify for the 100m BF finals with Alie Martin doing likewise in the 50BC.

Martin was back on the block again as she posted a strong 200BC to pick up a ‘B’ Final berth while Leah Martin smashed a new PB in the same event.

Templeogue member Sean McNicholl was pleased with a substantial PB in the 50BC and qualified for the ‘A’ Final.

In the women 400FC, PBs were delivered by all four of the Templeogue girls Walshe, Osing, Leah Martin and Alie Martin.

Walshe qualified for the ‘A’ Final but opted to focus on the 100BF instead while Osing produced a stunning swim in the ‘B’ Final to further improve on the PB from earlier in the day, making a massive five-second improvement.

Sean McNicholl made a big PB in his 50BF qualifying for and finishing in fourth in the Men’s final.

In the Men’s 100m BC there was a hat-trick of PBs for Evan Rossiter, Ethan Brady and Sean McNicholl who qualified for the Final.

The last contest of the day saw Evan Rossiter produce a stunning new PB in the 800FC with an almost 10-second improvement.