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Danielle Hill claimed her fourth national record of the Irish National Team Trials by lowering her own 50 free mark at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre.
Trojan’s Ethan Hansen won the men’s 200IM final in 2:05.12 ahead of National Centre Limerick’s Cadan McCarthy in 2:05.41 while Ellen Walshe won the women’s final in a PB of 2:15.01.
Cora Rooney dropped three seconds from her semi-finals time in the 200 back to touch in 2:23.69 in the final in which she was the sole entrant.
Danielle Hill: Photo Courtesy: Swim Ireland
Hill has twice lowered the 100 backstroke record and on Thursday reclaimed her 100 free mark before continuing her assault on the record books in the 50 free semis on Friday.
The Larne swimmer set the previous mark of 25.29 at the Irish Summer Championships in Dublin in July 2019 from which she cut 0.10 to lower it to 25.19.
On Saturday she will race once more in the final with the Olympic consideration time of 24.77 the target and intends to do it without taking a breath down the one length of the Dublin pool.
She said through Swim Ireland:
“I know I’ve got a 24 in me but I’ve got another opportunity tomorrow night and I just have to step up and do it again.
“It felt really good. I take one breath in the 50m and I got to 35m – usually that’s where I breathe – and I thought, ‘you know what, I could probably go no breathing’, but then it went through my head again and I thought, ‘you know what, I might regret it’, so I took a breath.
“Tomorrow night I’m going to just go for it. Head down to the wall – it’s 24 seconds so fingers crossed that’ll make the difference.”
McSharry and Coyne Set Up 200Br Tussle; Huge Drop For Corby
McSharry has been on the finest of form this week, twice lowering the national 100br record to 1:06.29 to go ninth in the world on the opening day and book her spot in Tokyo.
The 20-year-old then took down her 200 mark in Friday’s heats to 2:25.92 although much to her annoyance, it was 0.04 outside the Olympic qualification standard.
McSharry identified her first 100 and turns as areas where she could make gains but her semi-final swim of 2:27.44 saw her to second – matching her second-best time and former Irish record – behind Niamh Coyne who booked lane four for Saturday’s final in 2:26.73.
Eoin Corby: Photo Courtesy: Swim Ireland
In the men’s 200br semi-final, National Centre Limerick’s Eoin Corby dropped his PB from 2:13.24 in December to 2:10.99, 0.64 outside the OCT of 2:10.35.
Darragh Greene, already under Olympic consideration after a 100br national record of 59.76, was second in 2:11.02 with Rio 2016 Olympian Nicholas Quinn third in 2:12.54.
Corby said:
“I was very happy with it. I learned this morning from the heats that I need to work on my stroke count and stroke length. I had it up to 150m and then I died this morning, so that’s what I was working on this evening. I was just trusting my legs and getting into streamline, not stroking, and it paid off.
“To be honest, I wasn’t even targeting the Olympic time coming into the competition for the 200 so it’s a surprise for me really as well, but I will definitely give it another shot tomorrow evening.”
Ards’ Victoria Catterson had broken the 100m free Irish record on Wednesday evening before Hill reclaimed it on Thursday.
She reproduced her fine form in the 200 free semi by lowering her PB from 2:03.00 to 2:01.65.
Jack McMillan was first home in the 100m freestyle semi-final in a PB of 49.22 ahead of Jordan Sloan (49.55).
National Centre Dublin’s Brendan Hyland will be the top seed in tomorrow’s 100m fly final as he touched in 53.17 while Barry McClements was under the Minimum Qualification Standard of 1:03.41 for the Paralympic Games in 1:02.47.
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