Ellen Walshe shines on Irish Open Championships opening day

Ellen Walshe produced the swims of the day as the Irish Open Swimming Championships got underway at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin on Saturday.

The 22-year-old from Templeogue, who sufferered illness and injury which prevented her from competing in last year's European Championships in Rome, firstly set a new Irish senior record in the heats of the 100m butterfly, her favoured event in a time of 58.32 seconds.

Seeded in the middle lane for the final, Walshe went even quicker in the decider, winning in a blistering 57.96 seconds, and both times secured her place at the World Championships in Fukuoka in Japan later this year.

Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry had already booked their places in Japan and McSharry eased through her heats of the 50 freestyle, but found fellow Olympian Danielle Hill a tougher nut to crack as the Larne swimmer took gold in 25.25 seconds.

Wiffen set a new championship best of 3.51.17 for the men's 400 free in the heats but couldn't repeat that in the final as he held off his twin brother Nathan for gold in 3.52.83 with Finn McKeever, the Tokyo Olympian in the bronze medal position.

Shane Ryan made a return to competivive acton winning the men's 50 backstroke in 25.09 seconds however the race of the night was the men's 100 breaststroke decider as Eoin Corby hunted down Olympian Darragh Greene, winning by two hundredths of a second in 61 seconds flat compared to Greene’s 61.02 with Uiseen Cooke in bronze.

The 28-year-old Greene did not look happy to have been beaten by his big national rival Corby who just would not give up the hunt on the second 50 of a cracking race.

The heats of day two are off the blocks at 9.30am on Sunday morning.