Brendan Hyland and Conor Ferguson both broke Irish records on the opening day of competition at the FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China on Tuesday morning.
Hyland was first up in the heats of the 200m Butterfly, the National Centre Dublin swimmer put in a superb swim of 1:53.19, knocking over three seconds off his previous best and Irish record of 1:56.87. The time left Hyland in 10th place overall, just outside the final, with only the top eight progressing.
Speaking after his swim Hyland said: “I was pretty excited, I knew I was doing well as I could see a lot of clear water around me, I knew it would be a fast time so when I saw 1:53.1 I was very happy.
“It’s pretty cool, 10th in the world sounds nice, growing up swimming in Dublin my whole life, to be 10th in the world, to think of where I’ve come from, it’s really good, it’s given me confidence and hopefully I can push on from here’.
Hyland returns to the pool on Wednesday for the 100m Butterfly and after his opening swim the 24-year-old will be confident of breaking Conor Brines 2016 record of 52.08.
Conor Ferguson continued the record-breaking trend in the 100m Backstroke heats. The 19-year-old clocked 52.04 seconds, knocking .24 off his own record of 52.40 set in 2017.
Competing in her first senior international meet, World Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Niamh Coyne swam a best time of 31.42.
Darragh Greene then cemented a 100 per cent personal best rate for Team Ireland on day one in the 100m Breaststroke. Greene clocked 58.91 taking over a second off his previous best of 59.93.
