Michelle Smith's butterfly record broken

One of Irish swimming’s oldest records fell on day three of the Irish Long Course Swimming Championships and Olympic Trials, as 20-year-old Bethany Carson slipped under Michelle Smith’s 100m butterfly mark from 1996.

A slender one-hundredth of a second margin saw the Lisburn swimmer usurp controversial triple-Olympic champion Smith, recording a new Irish record of 1:00.58. Smith’s time of 1:00.59 was set at the European Championships in Vienna sixteen years ago.

Carson is now 0.32 seconds outside the European Championships qualifying time, with the Olympics A standard a further second faster, but is delighted to have wiped one of the oldest records off the map: “To break Michelle Smith’s record is something special. I was going for it, but wasn’t sure if I was going to get it in the heats. I want to go even faster and hope I can.

“I am going to try and go for the European mark. I talked to my coach Paul Donovan before and Peter Banks (national coach) to try and relax the stroke so it just felt a lot more relaxed. I knew it was good, but wasn’t sure how good.”

Melanie Nocher still needs to shave a second off her women's 200m backstroke Irish record set this morning in order to make it to London.

In the morning heats, the Ards starlet recorded a new Irish record time of 2:11.71, three-hundredths of a second inside her previous national standard.

But in bidding to repeat the act in tonight’s final, Nocher won in 2:11.81 – the first time she has swum two 2:12 times on the same day.

The 23-year-old is now targeting the British Olympic Trials to shave further time off her personal best: “I’m really disappointed. I would have loved to have swum it here, in front of my home crowd, but I wanted it too much and went out too hard, and paid for it in the last 100. I didn’t have enough to come back with.

“I have really pushed myself. There’s still loads of time and lots of other competitions so it’s not as if it’s the last chance.”

Sycerika McMahon is still seeking a European place herself but will definitely be competing in the women's 100m freestyle at May's European Swimming Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.

McMahon's time of 1:09.42 in winning the 100 free was a second inside the European qualifying mark, but shy of her personal best of 1:09.24 set last year in setting the current Irish junior record. The Olympic A standard remains a gettable 1:08.49.

The 16-year-old, a European Youth Olympics medallist in Tampere in 2009, went on to claim the women’s 400 freestyle title also.

McMahon said: “I was looking for under the 1:10 mark tonight to be closer to the Olympic qualifying time of 1:08. The time improvement I can take comfort from, and I have lots of opportunities until May 31st to get that A qualifying time. I’m in pretty good shape for it, so with a good swim and lots of training under my belt, it should be alright.”

Among the other national champions crowned on day three were Nicholas Quinn of Castlebar in the men’s 100m breaststroke, William Ensor of ESB was victorious in the men’s 200 backstroke, Jane Roberts of Kilkenny claimed the women’s 50 breaststroke, with Karl Burdis of Portmarnock winning the men’s equivalent.

Will Downing, National Aquatics Centre