Houghton clocks new Irish record

Melanie Houghton was in impressive form yesterday when she broke the Irish 50m butterfly record at the National Long Course Championships in Dublin yesterday.

Houghton is a former Australian team member, but now swimming out of the Swim Ireland Performance Centre at the National Aquatic Centre. The 28-year-old broke the record in the morning heats when clocking 27.53, lowering- the previous record of 27.75 held by Shauna O’Brien since last year.

In the semi-final Houghton bettered that time to 27.33 and eventually won the final in 27.55. O’Brien was second in 27.80 while Emma Reid (Ards) was third in 28.38.

Ben Griffin won the men’s 400m IM final. The Aer Lingus man’s time of 4:31.76 was under the qualification time for the European Junior Swimming Championships in Holland in July. James Brown (Ards) was silver in 4:35.05 while Benjamin Doyle (Aer Lingus) was third in 4:35.73.

Following his win and Irish record in the 200m butterfly, Brendan Hyland won his second national title of the weekend with victory in the 50m Butterfly final, edging Barry Murphy (24.71) by just 0.05 of a second.

In the final event, Bangor quartet Jordan Sloan, Roger Dawson, James Doggart and Jack McMillan held off Aer Lingus to win the men’s 4x200m Freestyle team relay in 7:59.43 while Aer Lingus won the women’s event.