JORDAN Sloan of Bangor and Brendan Hyland were the record-breaking stars of the show on the opening day of the Irish Open Swimming Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
Sloan was first up when he raced to a new Irish senior record in the morning’s preliminaries of the 200m freestyle. He broke Ryan Harrison’s 2009 rrecord of 1:47.94 with a time of 1:47.41, which was under the qualification time for both the World Championships in Budapest and World University Games in Chinese Taipei. It also ranks within the top 10 swims in the world so far this season. He went on to win last night’s final in 1:47.77 ahead of Bangor team-mate Jack Millan in 1:51.03.
Hyland took over half-a-second off his own 200m butterfly Irish record. The Tallaght swimmer swam his fastest time in three years clocking 1:58.08 in the final, securing his fourth consecutive national title in the event. Ellen Walshe of Templeogue won the women’s event in 2:16.43, swimming under the consideration time for both World and European Junior Championships.
Competition continues today through to Sunday.
