Shauna O'Brien Breaks Butterfly Record As Irish Swimmers Make International Qualification Times

Irish records fell on the second day of competition at the Dave McCullagh/Swim Ulster International at the Bangor Aurora in Down as a number of swimmers secured qualification times for this Summers international meets.

Shauna O'Brien set a new Irish Senior Record in the Women's 50m Butterfly Final. The UCD swimmer broke the previous record of 27.33 held by Melanie Houghton since 2014 in 27.10 seconds to claim gold, her time was under the qualification for the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea. O'Brien's UCD team mate Alex Murphy won the Men's 50m Butterfly Final in 24.85 seconds. The 19 year old held off Loughborough's Leo Jaggs (25.07) and Calum Bain of Ards (25.28).

Following his 50m Backstroke Irish Junior Record on Friday, Conor Ferguson broke the 100m Backstroke Record twice on Saturday. The 15 year old Larne swimmer posted a morning swim of 56.46 breaking Karl Burdis' 2008 record and made the qualification time for the European Youth Olympic Games (EYOF), he then went on to win gold in another record time of 56.36. Rory McEvoy (57.58), finishing in second place met the qualification time for the European Games in Baku in June. Natasha Hofton (University of Stirling) won the women's event in 1:02.88 while Larne's Danielle Hill went under the European Games qualification time for the second time today taking silver in 1:04.76.

Bangor's Jordan Sloan joined Shauna O'Brien in going under the qualification time for the World University Games. The University of Ulster, Jordanstown student won the 200m Freestyle in 1:49.63 having posted a heat swim of 1:49.26. Bethany Carson won the women's event in 2:03.09 while Rebecca Reid, who finished second in 2:03.38, posted a European Games qualification time.

Ross Murdoch and Nicholas Quinn had the crowd on their feet in a very close 200m Breaststroke Final. It came down to a fingernail as Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist Murdoch got the touch just two tenths of a second ahead of Quinn (2:14.73) in 2:14.46. Marlins SC Mona McSharry hit the qualification time for the European Games finishing third in the Women's 200m Breaststroke Final in a time of 2:36.31, the event was won by University of Edinburgh's Olivia White in 2:31.22.

In another tight race Galway's Andrew Moore hit the wall ahead of James Brown of Ards in the 400m Individual Medley Final. Moore's time of 4:33.65 was just .18 of a second ahead of Brown in 4:33.83. Aer Lingus' Benjamin Doyle claimed bronze in 4:35.85.

Swim Ireland NAC Performance Centre swimmer Antoinette Neamt cruised to 800m Freestyle gold in 8 minutes 51.70 seconds with 20 seconds to spare over Scotland's Eilidh Duthie (9:11.91) in second. Neamts time was 30 seconds inside the European Youth Olympic Games qualification time of 9:21.92.

In the night's final event Bangor men won the 4x200m Freestyle Relay in 7:55.30 while Ards women won the 4x100m Relay in 3:56.84.

At the Irish Masters Championships taking pace in Limerick this weekend Ennis SC Swimmer Norma Cahill has broken both the 800m and 1500m 50-54 Age Group European Records. In last night's 1,500m Freestyle Cahill broke the 800m Record swimming 10:04.64 and the 1500m in 19:03.05. Today she broke the 800m record for the second time dipping below the 10 minute mark in 9:59.85.

Competition continues tomorrow. Press Releases will be issue daily.