Shortt Secures Top Seed for European Final; Two Top 16 Places for Hamilton

Irish swimmers continued to impress on another exciting night of racing in Slovakia at the 2025 European Aquatics Championships. John Shortt secured the centre lane for Friday’s 200m Backstroke Final, while Matthew Hamilton had two top sixteen finishes.

Galway native John Shortt headed into tonight’s semi-final as the man to beat following his time of 1:59.41 this morning. Shortt put on another fine performance for a packed house, setting the standard from the onset by taking the lead and holding it throughout fourth lengths of the pool. The National Centre (Limerick) swimmer touched the wall in 1:58.12 to advance as the fastest swimmer for tomorrow night’s final.

The defending champion will face stiff competition for his crown, with Hungarian Zsombor Racz winning the first semi-final closely behind the Irishman’s time in 1:58.91, which is sure to serve up a titanic battle in Samorin.

Speaking directly after the race, Shortt said: “I’m pretty shattered after that, I’m very proud to make another final and to be first going in is a big positive, not too happy with the time but I know what I need to improve to get better tomorrow.”

He added: “It’s nice to have a bit of a target on my back, there’s a few guys in there who are really fast, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Matthew Hamilton rounded off an impressive day in the water appearing on the blocks on two occasions this evening to secure two top sixteen places. Hamilton finished thirteenth after his time of 54.08 in the 100m Butterfly. Shortly before that the 17-year-old came through one length of the pool in 23.11 to place sixteenth in the 50m Freestyle.

Speaking in the mixed-zone, he said: “It’s not quite the time I wanted but at the end of the day I made it to the semi-final and it was a pretty solid swim, I improved on the technical aspects of the swim from earlier in the day.”

Hamilton continued “It’s brilliant, I’m not used to it but to have two semi-final swims on one night is brilliant. The day is gone better than I thought it would, I didn’t think it would go that well, hopefully there’s more to come.”

Day four will see another busy day for the Irish with seven swimmers in the water, including Grace Davison in the 100m Freestyle, the same event where she won bronze at the 2024 iteration of this competition. While later in the day, John Shortt will look to defend his 200m Backstroke title.

European Aquatics Junior Championships Day 3 Results

Women 200m Backstroke                     Adeline Cloutier 2:23.20

Men 100m Butterfly                               Matthew Hamilton 53.82 (8), SF 54.08 (13) , Sean Donnellan 56.70, Thomas Bugler 56.90, Phelim Hanley 56.07 PB

Men 200m Backstroke                         John Shortt H 1:59.41 (1), SF 1:58.12 (1)

Women 200m Breaststroke                 Niamh Connery 2:33.46

Men 50m Freestyle                              Rueben Alty 23.83, Matthew Hamilton H 22.95 (13), SF 23.11 (16)

Men 200m Breaststroke                      Adam Bradley 2:22.61

European Aquatics Junior Championships Day 4 Schedule

Women 100m Freestyle                      Grace Davison

Men 400 IM                                          Phelim Hanley

Mixed 4×100 Medley Relay                 Ireland

Women 800m Freestyle                     Clare Custer

Men 800m Freestyle                          Denis O’Brien, Tadhg O’Brien

Men 200m Backstroke Final             John Shortt

The post Shortt Secures Top Seed for European Final; Two Top 16 Places for Hamilton appeared first on Swim Ireland.