Ireland’s Top Swimmers Target Olympic Qualification
Swim Ireland’s 2024 Irish Open Swimming Championships and Olympic Trials start on Wednesday 22nd May at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin. The 5-day event will see over three hundred swimmers from sixty clubs compete for National titles in thirty-four individual events and for places on three senior National Teams, including the European Aquatics Championships (50m) in June, the Paris Olympic Games in July and the World Aquatics Championships (25m) in December.
The Championships will be the final opportunity for swimmers to post an Olympic Qualification Time (OQT) for the Games, with places also to be decided at the event as to who will represent Ireland as part of their qualified Olympic relays.
Daniel Wiffen, Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry have already secured qualification times for Paris, while two relays, the Women’s and Men’s* 4x100m Medley are within the top sixteen ranking required by World Aquatics for an invite to be issued next month.
2021 Olympians Danielle Hill, Darragh Greene and Shane Ryan will feature at the Championships, along with numerous strong contenders including (amongst others) Tom Fannon, Conor Ferguson, John Shortt, Victoria Catterson, Nathan Wiffen and Maria Godden. In all events bar the longer distances, each will each have at least three opportunities across the competition to secure OQT’s in their respective events.
The opening day of competition will see Hill and Ferguson go in the 100m Backstroke Heats with both requiring personal best swims to achieve the OQT of 59.99 (women) and 53.74 (men). Daniel and Nathan Wiffen compete in the 800m Freestyle; while Daniel has already hit the OQT of 7:51.65, Nathan will need to knock a further six seconds off his best of 7:57.79 to have a chance at joining his brother in Paris. Ellen Walshe, who broke the 400m Individual Medley Irish Record last weekend, will compete in the 200m IM, an event in which she has already secured the OQT. Other events taking place on Wednesday include the Women’s 1500m Freestyle, the Men’s 200m Freestyle and the Women’s 200m Butterfly.
Speaking ahead of the Championships, Swim Ireland’s National Performance Director Jon Rudd said, “There is only an Olympic Games itself which is more exciting than an Olympic Trials and the stage is set in Dublin for Irish swimming dreams to become reality. A home pool, an enthusiastic gallery of Irish swimming fans and a chance to book a seat on the plane to Paris. What more could we all want? Not only can our athletes claim their Paris place outright by hitting the necessary OQT’s, but spots in our relays will be finalised here – and those races will have something extra about them, particularly in the instances where we know someone will be selected – it’s just a case of who. If you love swimming, if you love sport, if you love the notion of the Olympic dream – you should be here at least once over these five days to will on these terrific athletes. It will be absolutely electric, and we all wish everyone the very best of luck in their final stages of preparation”.
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