Clean Sweep for McMahon on Day 1 of Swimming Championships

Sycerika McMahon concluded day 1 of the Dave McCullagh Irish Swimming Championships with four Gold medals as the first national competition of 2013 got underway in Limerick. The European medallist dominated in the 100m Freestyle (57.45), 200m Butterfly (2:18.79), 100m Breaststroke (1:12.42) and 400m Individual Medley (4:55.53).

NAC swimmer Brian O'Sullivan (27.36) was the first Irish champion of 2013 as he picked up Gold in the men's 50m Backstroke Final. O'Sullivan (52.89) then went on to win Bronze in the 100m Freestyle Final minutes later, beaten by Curtis Coulter (51.87) of Ards and Brian O'Sullivan (52.45) AURA Dundalk SC.

Barry Murphy (1:05.62), representing Aer Lingus SC won the men's 100m Breaststroke Final with teammate Ben Griffin (1:07.42) in second. In the men's 200m Butterfly Final, Brendan Hyland who swims out of the National Aquatic Centre High Performance Centre in Dublin touched in first in 2:01.92, David O'Sullivan (Galway) was second in 2:05.67.

There were plenty of qualifiers for European competitions on Day 1 as Sarah Kelly and Clodagh Flood both qualified for European Junior Championships in the final of the 200m Butterfly. Brendan Gibbons also went under the European Junior's standard in the 800m Freestyle. European Youth Olympic Festival qualifiers included Rachel Bethel (Lisburn ASC) in the 100m Freestyle and Niamh Kilgallon (Claremorris SC) in the 100m Breaststroke. Whilst 2012 Paralympians James Scully (100m Free) and Ellen Keane (100m Breaststroke) also hit minimum qualification standards today for the IPC Paralympic World Championships this August in Montreal.