Cooney continues to impress at NAC

Swimming's Irish Long Course Championships continued in the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin with some superb performances from Ireland's top swimmers who are continuing to qualify in numbers for this Summer's International competitions.

Aisling Cooney again broke the record she had set yesterday in the women's 100m Backstroke clocking a time of 1:01.76. Cooney just missed out on qualification for the World Championships by just .06 of a second. In a very close race Melanie Nocher touched in second in a time of 1:02.39, also just missing out on qualification, both girls will have another shot at qualification tomorrow in the women's 200m Backstroke event. In the men's event Karl Burdis, Portmarnock SC and a member of the Irish World Championship team in 2009, came in first in a time of 56.50.

St Paul SC's Niall Wynn set a new Irish Senior record in the 400m Individual Medley final, Wynn broke the record held by double Olympian Andrew Bree since 2001 in a time of 4:27.96 knocking a massive 2.14 seconds off Bree's longstanding record, Wynn also qualified for the World University Games in China in the process. In the women's event Leander ASC swimmer Sycerika McMahon continued her fine form from yesterday's hat-trick of gold medals taking first place in a time of 5:51.56, New Ross swimmer Shani Stallard (4.58.73) took the silver medal.

In the women's 50m Butterfly event 16 year old Shauna O'Brien from Waterford Crystal set a new Irish Junior record touching in second place in a time of 28.14, breaking a record she had set herself in 2009. Shauna Smith, Limerick SC won the event in a time of 27.92.

In the men's 800m Freestyle event, Conor Donnelly (8:26.54) from Leander ASC added a second long distance gold to the 1500m Freestyle he won yesterday touching home ahead of Brendan Gibbons (8:29.64) and Seamus Stacey (8:30.69). Niamh O'Sullivan, UCD SC won the women's event qualifying for the World University Games in China in a time of 8:54.67

The competition continues tomorrow Saturday until Sunday evening (1st May).

Current Swimmers Achieving Consideration Standards

• World Senior LC Championships, Shanghai, China: Grainne Murphy, Barry Murphy
• European Junior LC Championships, Belgrade, Serbia: Conor Turner, Sycerika McMahon, Jane Roberts, Peter Clarke, Dan Sweeney
• European Youth Olympic Festival, Trabzon, Turkey: Clodagh Flood, Brian O'Sullivan, Brendan Gibbons, Mary Kate McDowell, David O'Sullivan, Sean O'Brien, Luke Fitzgibbon
• World University Games, Shenzhen, China: Niamh O'Sullivan, Niall Wynn, Fiona Doyle, Lorna Cummins, Karl Burdis, Aisling Cooney

Issued by Swim Ireland, whose High Performance Programme is supported and funded by the Irish Sports Council