Houghton Smashes 50m Butterfly Record

Swim Ireland's Irish Long Course National Championships continued today at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin. The four day event see's Ireland's top swimmers compete for national titles across 34 Individual and 6 team events.

Melanie Houghton was in impressive form on the second day of racing breaking the Irish 50m Butterfly Record. Houghton, who is a former Australian National Team member, is now living in Ireland and swimming out of the Swim Ireland Performance Centre at the National Aquatic Centre. The 28 year old broke the 50m Butterfly record in this morning's heats session swimming a time of 27.53, lowering the previous record of 27.75 held by Shauna O'Brien since 2013 by .22 of a second.

In tonight's semi-final Houghton bettered that time to 27.33 and eventually won the Final and her first national title in 27.55. Shauna O'Brien was second in 27.80 while Ards swimmer Emma Reid was third in 28.38.

Ben Griffin was the first title winner of the night when he took Gold in the Men's 400m Individual Medley Final. The Aer Lingus man's time of 4:31.76 was under the qualification time for the European Junior Swimming Championships in Dordrecht, The Netherlands in July. James Brown of Ards claimed Silver in 4:35.05 while Benjamin Doyle (Aer Lingus) was third in 4:35.73.

Danielle Lowe from Great Britain won the women's 400m Individual Medley Final in 4:49.52 with the Irish Title going to second placed Shani Stallard of UCD Swimming Club in 4:59.33. UCD then picked up their second National title of the night with David Prendergast claiming the win in the 100m Backstroke in 58.79 seconds.

Lowe was then back in the pool for the women's 100m Backstroke Final where she won the event in 1:04.21, Tara Dunne of Ballina Dolphins swam to the Irish title in 1:05.55.

Following his win and Irish record in the 200m Butterfly yesterday, Brendan Hyland won his second national title of the weekend with victory in the 50m Butterfly Final. In a close encounter he beat Barry Murphy (24.71) by just .05 of a second.

In tonight's final event Bangor's quartet of Jordan Sloan, Roger Dawson, James Doggart and Jack McMillan held off Aer Lingus (8:02.56) to win the Men's 4x200m Freestyle Team Relay in 7:59.43 while Aer Lingus won the women's event in 8:56.80.