Big guns start strongly at Irish Swimming Open, with Olympic spots up for grabs

The Irish Open Swimming Championships and Olympic trials got underway at the National Aquatic Centre with five swimmers achieving European Championships consideration times.

Double World Champion Daniel Wiffen, already qualified for the Paris Olympics, was once again under the Olympic qualification time (OQT) in the 800m freestyle heat in 7:51.47.

Wiffen set a new championship record in the event, just ten minutes after his twin brother Nathan had broken his own 2023 championship record of 8:03.79 in a personal best swim of 7:56.40. The Loughborough swimmers will go again in tomorrow’s 800m freestyle final with Nathan targeting the OQT of 7:51.65.

Conor Ferguson swam a personal best in the 100m backstroke. Ferguson’s time of 53.87 knocked a further three hundredths of a second off his best of 53.90 from the semi-final of the event at the World Championships in Doha. The 24-year-old is now just .13 of a second away from the OQT of 53.74 and he will have a second opportunity at it later today.

Danielle Hill topped the women’s 100m Backstroke heats with a time of 1:00.37. The Larne swimmer, who set an Irish record of 1:00.16 in April, will target the OQT of 59.99 in this evening’s final.

Evan Bailey set the first new Irish Record of the week, with a new junior standard in the 200m freestyle event. The New Ross swimmer touched in 1:48.49, taking over a second off the 2018 standard of 1:49.57.

In the 200m individual medley, Ellen Walshe, who secured here Olympic place at the 2023 World Championships, swam a speedy 2:11.95 to earn the top seed for the final.

Daniel Wiffen, Ferguson, Hill, Bailey and Walshe were all under the consideration time for the European Championships in their respective events.

Also today, Grace Hodgins