Day 2 of the 2014 Irish National Championships saw the second butterfly National Record of the meet go down. Following Brendan Hyland’s 200 fly mark from Thursday, Melanie Houghton crushed the women’s 50 fly record in the semi-finals on Thursday.
She swam a 27.33 in that semi; for the 28-year old veteran, that broke her 27.53 from the prelims, which broke the 27.75 set by Shauna O’Brien in 2013 as the fastest ever by an Irish swimmer. Houghton would go on to win the 50 fly final in the same session with a 27.55.
O’Brien would touch as the runner-up this year in 27.80, and the 19-year old is still young enough to take her record back in the next few years.
That’s a new lifetime best, from what we can find, for Houghton, who as a teenager was an elite swimmer representing her native Australia. She swam at the 2004 World Short Course Championships, for example, where she was 10th in the 50 fly. She was also a prelims swimmer on Australia’s bronze-medal winning 400 free relay.
Her results record disappears in 2005, however, when she was 20, and then reappears with some sparse regional-level meets in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Now she’s back to elite competition, and in her 2nd meet on Irish soil owns a National Record.
Houghton also took the top seed in the 100 free semi-final (58.51) on Friday. She’ll swim the finals of that race on Saturday.
The most exciting final on day 2 of this meet was the men’s 50 fly, where Lithuanian teenager Deividas Margevicius swooped in to win in 24.55, beating out the aforementioned Hyland (who will count as the Irish National Champion in 24.66) and veteran sprinter Barry Murphy (24.66).
Danielle Lowe, who represents the English segment of the Commonwealth, won the women’s 400 IM in 4:49.52. That’s about 7 seconds slower than she was at British Nationals two weeks ago. Lowe doubled-up in finals, taking the 100 back as well in 1:04.21.
National Record holder Barry Murphy sat out of the 100 breaststroke at this meet, which made room for 20-year old Nicholas Quinn to race a solid 1:02.94 and take the top seed by almost two seconds into finals.
The women’s 100 breast semi’s saw Ireland’s newly-crowned Swimmer of the Year Fiona Doyle cruise to a top seed as well in 1:09.63. The Canadian-trained Doyle is an overwhelming favorite to win at this meet with Sycerika McMahon staying at Texas A&M to focus on her university exams this week instead.
