European gold medallist John Shortt set two junior national records at the Irish Short-Course Winter Championships on Sunday to bring his national record tally set in the last four weeks across junior and senior levels to 21.
One of Ireland’s three gold medallists at the recent European Short-Course Championships in Poland, the Galway 18-year-old improved his own junior record to 21.89 in the 50m freestyle at the National Aquatic Centre on Sunday before clocking another junior national record of 54.32 in the 100m individual medley.
Shortt finished the weekend with five gold medals – Sunday’s wins adding to his first-place finishes in the 100m backstroke, 200m freestyle and 200m IM from earlier in the meet – and sees him finish the year with eight senior and 13 junior Irish records to his credit.
His fellow European medallist from Poland, Ellen Walshe, was also in record-breaking form, twice reducing the Irish senior record in the 200m freestyle on Saturday.
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The 24-year-old touched the wall in 1:55.23 in the heats to better Victoria Catterson’s time from 2023 before further improving it to 1:53.72 in the evening’s final to take gold, her second of the weekend after finishing first in the 100m freestyle on Friday.
The Templeogue swimmer closed out her season with another gold on Sunday, touching the wall first in 56.26 to win the 100m butterfly ahead of Alana Burns-Atkin (59.34) and Lucy O’Brien (1:01.04).
