2018 IRISH OPEN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 8th
- National Aquatic Centre, Dublin
- LCM
- Selection for European Senior & Junior Championships; World Youth Olympic Games
- Psych Sheets
- SwimSwam Preview
- Results
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Day 3 Recap
After Irish swimmers Shane Ryan and Brendan Hyland already broke national records in their respective 100m free and 200m fly events earlier this week, Mona McSharry followed suit with a new standard of her own.
While competing on night 4 of the 2018 Irish Open, the 17-year-old World Junior champion earned a new national record in the women’s 50m freestyle, clocking 25.54 for gold. That mark shaved .02 off of the newly-minted NR of 25.56 registered by Danielle Hill at the Commonwealth Games. The record is added to McSharry’s other national marks in the 50m/1000m/200m breaststroke events.
Finishing just .11 behind McSharry in the women’s splash n’ dash was Katie Stark, who notched a silver medal effort of 25.65, followed by America’s Talia Bates who earned bronze in 25.77.
Another American, Willie Davis, scored the only men’s 50m freestyle time under the 23-second threshold for the win. Davis touched in 22.85, the 4th fastest time of his young career.
Teen teammate Claire Tuggle was back in action tonight as well, winning the women’s 200m freestyle race. Splitting 57.91/1:01.20, Tuggle dipped under the 2-minute threshold for the first time ever, surpassing her previous personal best of 2:00.63 set at last year’s NCSA Summer Championships.
With her performance in Dublin tonight, Tuggle checks-in as the 3rd fastest American 13-14 ever in the event:
Top 5 American Women, Aged 13-14, Women’s 200m freestyle
- Sippy Brennan, 1:58.53, 1978
- Missy Franklin, 1:58,67, 2009
- Claire Tuggle, 1:59.11, 2018
- Chelsea Chenault, 1:59.14, 2009
- Quinn Carrozza, 1:59.19, 2011
Tuggle’s teammates did some major damage in the women’s 100m backstroke event as well, with Isabelle Stadden and Phoebe Bacon finishing 1-2 in times bordering on the minute threshold. Stadden threw down a personal best of 1:00.06 for gold, while Bacon touched just .03 behind in 1:00.09 for silver.
Both women now fall among the United States’ fastest 15-16 year-old females of all time:
- Regan Smith, 58.95, 2017
- Missy Franklin, 59.18, 2011
- Rachel Bootsma, 59.77, 2009
- Elizabeth Pelton, 59.99, 2010
- Isabelle Stadden, 1:00.06, 2018
- Phoebe Bacon, 1:00.09, 2018
Additional Winners on the Day:
- Ben Griffin was tonight’s 200m IM winner, clocking 2:03.1o to stand atop the podium.
- The men’s 100m backstroke saw Shane Ryan beat out Englishman Christopher Walker-Hebborn, registering a winning effort of 53.96 to CWH’s 54.23.
Dippy Brennan really It’s Woodhead one of the grewtest ever.
That 1.58.53 from 1978 by a 14-year-old girl always blows my mind. Like the 4.07.15 in the 400 free.
You can watch the last 25 seconds of Sippy Woodhead’s 200 free world record here at 3 min 22 in the video.
She had a very high turnover rate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3j13TRVY0s
IMHO you (and not just you) are overreacted, a 13-14 time it’s not really meaningfull.
Every person has a different physical development, so you can have a record breaker 13yo who never improvement and a below average 13yo who break the WR at age 20.
Especially for the girls you never know how they can perform once the hit adulthood: body change, the stoke changes too and you have a totally different athetes in the just 1 year (and his/her coach have to start from beginning).
BTW great performance but let’s calm down.
I think we have the right to be enthusiastic every time a young swimmer or less young makes a performance. I agree with you about the fact that being fast at a young age doesn’t mean you will be much faster several years later. But it doesn’t mean the opposite either. And in the case of Claire Tuggle I don’t take many risks when I write that she’s a future superstar in the making. Her technique is great and her way of swimming her races shows she’s very smart. I didn’t overreact when I wrote in 2011 that KL would be dominant in mid-distance/distance swimming.
About Sippy Woodhead my comment was more about the year it has been swum.… Read more »
I specifically respond to that comment (and not on other comment on Tuggle) on purpose: she was a special talent to swim so fast but her best time was just 0.3 better than that (at the age of 15).
Almost the same with Meagher, she was fast during all her career but she clocked her best time when she was just 16.
I repeat physical development is odd, you never knows if, when or how will it.
To be fair, it’s impossible to say how fast a talent like Woodhead or Meagher could have been at age 20 with today’s training techniques. The coaching philosophy in the 70s was based entirely off of yardage.
If they had a chance to take that base and transition to one of today’s more high-quality approach programs who knows if they wouldn’t have dropped a bunch of time. Or maybe they were the type of swimmers to just respond well to high yardage, and it took them as far as they could ever have gone. Plus there are today’s improvements in turns, technique, nutrition, etc which would have made a difference. Just so many variables when comparing eras.
You can watch Claire Tuggle’s 200 free here. At 30 minutes in the video.
The great battle between both US teens in the 100 back is at 55 min 30 in the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocUcm_1UzZ8
I think it is time to stop saying “Ah, Oh, Wow” about Claire Tuggle’s results and talk of her as 2020 Olympic hope only. With this meet she entered adult swimmers zone. Her times 1:59 – 4.11 – 8:37 will rank her #13 among American swimmers last season. Don’t talk about her age, but analyze the pace of her progress. I don’t know what her major meets are this season, but she is already able to compete for the place on 4×200 relay in PamPac.
At this meet in Ireland Open she still behaves as a happy schoolgirl competing in everything from 100 through 800 and I won’t be surprised if she swims 1500 as well. But she will… Read more »
Your super deep analytic posts about Claire Tuggle in all her articles is super creepy. Please stop. Everyone is creeped out by you.
The words you use in these comments is super frickin weird. Please stop
this somment is so condescendant , it makes me feel nauseous .
2 out of the top 5 come from the Aquajets.
Technically true, although Ms. Stadden has been with Aquajets for only one season. And she went 1:01.4 with her old team (Fastjets) as a 14-year old.
True, but her progress was impressive under Coach Kate Lundsten, who has coached many top backstrkoersbincluding Rachel Bootsma. She just continues to improve, from Fall high school season to NCSAs where she was the high point winner with fast times in all strokes, including breaststroke. Nice person and great family. Impressive swim in 2BK this morning in Ireland!
I expected Phoebe Bacon into the 59s this season, and that seems quite likely now, but I have to admit I hadnt heard of Isabelle Stadden – Very impressive. Claire Tuggle well and truly looks the real deal; Ledecky already looked to have her hands full in the 200 with Ruck and Titmus… Might there be another to keep an eye on over the next 2 years now? Tuggle could turn out to be just about anything. Exciting!
Ledecky might be trending 400-1500 at the Olympics and just leaving 200 for the relay. She goes down as the undisputed best female swimmer ever if she does that.
It seems premature to be writing the obituary of Ledecky’s 200. How many women have ever gone 1:53 (as she has)? And that wasn’t very long ago.
Agree. I don’t understand where this pessimism comes from. Since 1:53.7 in Rio there was only ONE unsuccessful race at 200 event – 1:55.16 A lot of swimmers are dreaming to be that “unsuccessful”. It happened to be a final race at WC and that fact of losing for the first time creates an illusion of troubles in this event. But not result by itself. Ledecky finished the season being #1 (1:54.6). At the same championships she swam second her fast splits at 200. In her first college year she bettered her personal best at 200y. At last NCAA finals 200 was the only event where she was better than previous season (split 1:39.8). I think that 200 record (at… Read more »
Looks like Ledecky’s successor already has a successor herself.
Maybe. I don’t want to place too high hopes on her already.
Future is very bright for Ms. Tuggle. Her trajectory suggests she’ll be in the mix for 800 FR on the 2020 Tokyo team. And those are some outstanding 15-16 100 backstroke times. USA now has 3 girls 15-16 going 1:00.0 or better (with Smith going :58 already). Wow
Imagine is she’s reading this lol.