New Irish Record for Meegan on Day 1 of Swimming Championships

The first finals session of the Carlton Irish Long Course Swimming Championships started with intent as Aer Lingus swimmer Andrew Meegan set a new Irish standard in the men's 1500m Freestyle final, Meegan took over four seconds off his own record set in 2012 finishing in 15.38.14.

Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu was in fine form as she picked up two gold commemorative medals on the first day of competition. The triple Olympian touched first in the 200m Freestyle (1:59.57) and the 200m Butterfly (2:12.24).

Sycerika McMahon continued her winning ways as she won two national titles when she was the first Irish competitor home in the 200m Freestyle (2:01.96) and the 200m Butterfly (2:16.52). McMahon has opted not to swim her favoured Breaststroke events this weekend.

Barry Murphy prepared for his main event tomorrow by winning the men's 50m Breaststroke. Murphy will have three opportunities over the next two days to hit the World Championship qualification time of 1:00.86 in the 100m Breaststroke. Another World's hopeful Fiona Doyle also prepped for her 100m Breaststroke swim tomorrow by winning the 50m Breaststroke final. Doyle will need to go under the women's qualification time of 1:10.06 to make the team travelling to Worlds.

The men from Ards ASC set a new Irish Junior Record when they came home first in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay. Curtis Coulter, James Brown, Joel Kelly and Conor Munn touched in 3:31.28 ahead of UCD SC (3:37.90). Following three wins at the Dave McCullagh meet in February UCD's Women continued their dominance of Irish relay racing winning the women's event in 3:59.38.

This weekend's meet acts as a qualification for European Junior Championships, European Youth Olympics, World University Games and World Championships with numerous qualifiers today.

Over at the British Swimming Disability Championships in Sheffield Laurence McGivern (100m Back) and James Scully (100m Free) both hit qualification times for the Paralympic Word Championships in August.