Two Irish records fell on the first day of the Dave McCullagh Memorial Meet/ Ulster International in Bangor today. 15 year old Conor Ferguson broke the Irish age group record in the 50 backstroke posting a time of 26.11 eight one-hundredths of a second under the old record of 26.19 set by Karl Burdis in 2008.
Ferguson now holds the age group records in both the 50 and 200 backstroke and will be challenging the mark in the 100 tomorrow.
The men’s 4 x 100 freestyle senior Irish record was taken down by a team made up of Seamus Stacey, Jack Keogh, Alex Melennec and David Prendergast who posted a final time of 3:28.75. They broke the record of 3:29.24 which was set by NUIM Devils in 2009.
This competition is acting as the trials for several of this year’s major international meets including the FINA World Championships, the World University Games, the European Games and the European Youth Olympic Festival.
On the first night of competition four athletes made the cut for the European Youth Olympic Festival. Antoinette Neamt and Ellen Wash qualified for the 200 butterfly, Niamh Coyne qualified in the 100 breaststroke while Rebecca Reid qualified in the 400 IM.
The winners in the men’s events included:
- 50 backstroke – Jordan Sloan – 25.88
- 100 freestyle – Matthew Parks – 51.02
- 200 butterfly – Brendan Hyland – 1:59.92
- 100 breaststroke – Ross Murdoch – 1:01.40
- 1500 freestyle – Brendan Gibbons – 16:05.77
The winners in the women’s events included:
- 50 backstroke – Lucy Hope – 30.05
- 100 freestyle – Bethany Firth – 56.94
- 200 butterfly – Emily Nisbet – 2:18.44
- 100 breaststroke – Olivia White – 1:11.85
- 400 IM – Shani Stallard – 4:58.54
Meet Schedule: Prelims: 09:45 / Finals: 17:30 (Sunday 16:30pm)
Live Results: www.swimireland.ie/live_swim_times or Meet Mobile App