December 16, 2021
The 2021 Irish Short Course Championships got underway on Thursday 16th December at the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin.
380 swimmers from 56 clubs competed in the first National Swimming Championships in two years, with excitement palpable in the Aquatic Centre. With a large team competing at World Championships in Abu Dhabi, this year’s Irish SC Championships offered an opportunity for plenty of up-and-coming swimmers to feature on the podium.
The 200m Freestyle Relays were run off in the morning session and saw Ulster clubs Larne SC and Ard SC claim the Championship gold in the men’s and women’s events respectively, with the Nova Centurion team first home in the women’s event.
Also in the morning session, Nathan Wiffen from Larne SC claimed the first individual medal of the meet in the 800m Freestyle, in a time of 7:50.71, well clear of the rest of the field. Joseph Kingsland (Nova Centurion) was second home in 8:25.35, Lisburn’s Jack Fleming took silver in 8:27.08 and Ben Moran (Aer Lingus SC) was in the bronze medal position in 8:33.95.
Greece’s Ilektra Lebl was fastest of the women in 8:39.50 with Grace Hodgins (Trojan) first of the Irish in 8:50.55. Victoria Catterson (Ards SC) was next home in 8:55.06 and Ella Carroll (Limerick SC) was third for the Irish swimmers in 9:08.12.
In the Men’s 50m Backstroke International visitors Jordan McPhail, Pietro Ubertalli (both Natare West London) and Thomas Pickering claimed the top three spots. Adam Barnes from Ards SC claimed finished in 26.16 to take the gold, with Lorcan Gourley (Larne SC) taking silver and John Shortt (Bluefin) the bronze medal.
Maria Godden (Kilkenny SC) was first to the wall in 28.16 in the Women’s 50m Backstroke, with Lottie Cullen (Swim Belfast) and Jena MacDougald (UCD SC) rounding out the medal positions.
The Men’s 100m Freestyle saw the top three swimmers dip under 50 seconds, Kingdom’s Jack Grace claimed gold, with an impressive swim from 16-year-old Evan Bailey (New Ross SC) seeing him finish in 49.38 for silver and Ards SC swimmer David Thompson taking the bronze medal.
Freya Colbert (Nova Centurion) was first home in the Women’s 100m Freestyle in 54.36, with Ards SC’s Victoria Catterson taking gold in 54.39, Erin Riordan (NAC SC) silver and Maria Godden was back on the podium to claim bronze.
Kilkenny’s Alex Mc Lelland-Maher topped the podium in the Men’s 200m Butterfly event in 2:03.94 whilst Ele Donegan from Larne Sc was the fastest Irish woman in the same event, in a time of 2:16.22.
In one of the most competitive finals of the evening session Uiseann Cooke edged out his National Centre Limerick training mate Eoin Corby to claim the gold medal in a time of 59.10, with Corby touching in 59.28. Corby was back in the pool to take gold in the Men’s 100m Individual Medley in the final men’s event of the evening.
Young Ards swimmer Ellie McCartney featured on two podiums on the first evening, claiming gold in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke and bronze in the 100m Individual Medley.
UCD swimmer Jena MacDouglad took top honours in the final swim of the evening in the Women’s Individual Medley in 1:03.50, finishing just behind Greece’s Ilektra Lebl.
The action continues tomorrow (Friday) at 10am, finals at 5.30pm.
Livestreams:
Entries: Irish SC Programme
Live Results: Swim Ireland Live Timing - please note that Swim Ireland do not have access to this webpage. We upload results as they are done and that is all we can do. We are aware that there can be problems accessing the results and are doing everything we can to get the page to work
Session Times: Irish Short Course Session Times
