2018 Irish Open Day 3: Brendan Hyland Crushes New 2Fly National Record

2018 IRISH OPEN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 8th
• National Aquatic Centre, Dublin
• LCM
• Selection for European Senior & Junior Championships; World Youth Olympic Games
• Psych Sheets
• SwimSwam Preview
• Results
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap

With American Claire Tuggle making headlines on the first 2 days of the 2018 Irish Open, it was domestic talent Brendan Hyland who stole the show on night 3 in Dublin. The 23-year-old rocked a new national record in the men’s 200m butterfly, taking gold in the event in a strong 1:57.44.

Entering tonight’s final, Hyland’s personal best and previous NR sat at the 1:58.08 clocked at the 2017 edition of this meet. But the National Centre Dublin swimmer found a way to hack over half a second off of that outing to produce the 1:57.44 and notch the only sub-2 minute time of the field.

Post-race, Hyland commented, “Usually I’m quite excited by something like this but today I’m just so relieved, I’m always really nervous. I said to my coach if I could get down to 1.57 low for this season it would be a success, we’re there now so I’ll keep pushing on.”

America’s Rachel Klinker led the charge in the women’s 200m fly, making it a 1-2-3 finish for the stars n’ stripes. Klinker clocked 2:12.90 for the gold, with Caroline Cooper and Abigail Harter right behind in respective times of 2:13.12 and 2:14.54.

For Lexington Dolphins’ Klinker, tonight’s result marks a huge personal best for the teen, with her previous career fastest sitting at the 2:14.73 clocked last August.

Additional Winners on the Day:

• Katie Stark took the women’s 100m freestyle in 55.60.
• Ireland’s Darragh Greene completed the breaststroke sweep, adding the 50m breast victory (27.44) to his earlier 100m and 200m wins.
• National record holder Mona McSharry won the women’s 50m breast in 31.45.
• Casey Storch was tnoight’s 400m IM winner in 4:26.46, leading a clean sweep of the podium for the Americans. Right behind him was Jason Louser in 4:27.30, followed by Kyle Barker in 4:28.66.