Ireland Reveals Rosters For Major Summer Meets

Swim Ireland has released its roster for the upcoming major international swimming meets on the agenda for this summer.

The organization has identified LEN European Championships and the Commonwealth Games as its foci for 2022. As such, just two swimmers have been named to the World Championships roster in the form of sprinter Calum Bain and distance ace Daniel Wiffen.

20-year-old Wiffen currently ranks 14th in the world in the 800m freestyle (7:50.74) and 15th in the 1500m freestyle (15:02.78), having established both marks as new Irish national records at the Stockholm Open in April of this year.

Highlighting the European Championships roster are Shane Ryan, Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry, all of whom swam or still swim in the NCAA college system.

Ryan was a student-athlete at Penn State who went on to represent Ireland after a stint on the American squad, while Walshe and McSharry compete for the University of Tennessee.

Liam Custer is another significant name on the Euros roster, with the Stanford commit owning dual citizenship with Ireland and the United States. With that status, Custer was able to claim a National Age Record for the United States in the 1650y freestyle in 2020 (14:37.86).

At 2019’s World Championships, Ireland sent 10 swimmers, who collectively came away with zero hardware. The highest finish there in Gwangju, South Korea came in the form of Darrah Greene placing 10th in the men’s 50m breaststroke.

At the last edition of the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, Ireland also missed out on medals.

National Performance Director Jon Rudd said of this year’s squads, “After a very successful Olympics and World short course Championships in 2021, it is time for our athletes to see how they can move our sport on yet again for Ireland and with so many events on the calendar this summer, we believe that we have struck an excellent balance across all of that which was available to us.

“The senior team for Rome is strong and we can look forward to something similarly exciting when the Northern Ireland team is announced for Birmingham.

“Our Juniors also have everything to look forward to and nothing to lose and we are confident that they will fare well in Romania against the best youngsters in Europe.

“It’s also very pleasing to see us back in international Open Water territory and we will use these selections to help us assess where our talent lies on the continental stage. We wish all of our athletes and their coaches the very best in their preparations over the weeks to come.”