McMahon star of the show as recordstumble in Short Course Championships

Another day, another record-breaking shift in the pool for Sycerika McMahon at the Irish Short Course Championships in Lisburn.

Olympian McMahon was the headline act of the weekend and her achievements were fittingly recognised with the prestigious Swimmer of the Meet accolade yesterday.

The Leander star collected an amazing five titles during Friday’s opening day of competition and yesterday the 17-year-old collected a further three crowns and set a national record in the 200m breaststroke final (2:25.23).

McMahon won gold in the 400m IM final in 4:47.80, a staggering 12 seconds ahead second-placed Lydia Kehoe (5:00.30) of New Ross while the 200m freestyle final was a much tighter affair with McMahon seeing off Bethany Carson by .45 seconds in 1:59.63.

McMahon wasn’t alone in record-breaking achievements.

UCD’s Shauna O’Brien secured a national record for the 50m butterfly, breaking Julie Douglas’ eight-year-old mark of 27.40 when coming home in 27.30 from Kilkenny’s Jane Roberts (28.27).

O’Brien’s UCD team-mate Aisling Cooney (1:01.62) won the 100m backstroke final with NAC’s Brian O’Sullivan (55.84) victorious in the men’s equivalent.

Tallaght and NAC High Performance Centre swimmer Brendan Hyland broke the national junior record twice in the 400m individual medley, winning the final by ten seconds in 4:20.43.

Brendan Gibbons, set yet another Irish junior record in the 800m freestyle final (8:11.00) when seeing off Aer Lingus’ Conor Turner (8:12.73).

Bangor’s Women (4:23.40) and Aer Lingus’ Men (3:55.00) set Irish junior club records in the 4x100m medley relay final.

Bangor (4:23.40) then went on to set another junior club record in the women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay when they finished second behind Galway (3:58.32).