Irish stars smash national records

IRISH swimmers smashed 11 national records in the last week.

Melanie Nocher (City of Belfast) and Ciara Farrell (Athlone SC and Loughborough University), both competing at the World Championships in Melbourne, both achieved a new Irish record and five personal bests this week.

Last week 17-year-old Andrew Meegan broke the senior and junior records in the 1500m freestyle in 16.00.45 at the Dave McCullagh meet in Limerick.

Nine other new records were set at the meet. Grainne Murphy (Limerick) and Michael Dawson (Ards) qualified for the European Youth Olympics in July while Aisling Cooney (ESB), Fiona Doyle (Limerick), Bethany Carson (Lisburn City), Niamh O’Sullivan (Kingdom), Karl Burdis (Portmarnock) and Andrew Meegan (Westwood/CRC) have qualified for the European Juniors.

“These results are a great boost and give swimmers a clear focus for the year ahead in the build up to the summer international events. They are a reflection of the commitment of our up and coming swimmers,” said coach Keith Bewley.