2025 IRISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, April 12th – Wednesday, April 16th
- Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre, Dublin, Ireland
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results – Meet Mobile: Irish Open Championships 2025
Day three of the 2025 Irish Open Championships brought us our first national record of the World Championships-qualifying competition.
Racing in the semi-final of the men’s 200m backstroke, 18-year-old John Shortt fired off a lifetime best of 1:56.61 to grab the top seed and dip under the 1:57 barrier for the first time in his young career.
The National Centre Limerick’s outing this evening overtook his previous national record of 1:57.68 posted en route to claiming gold at the 2024 European Junior Championships.
Splits between the two performances demonstrate how the Galway native upped the ante on the front half, beating his previous record’s opening 100m by over half a second.
| Shortt’s New 1:56.61 2Back Record | Shortt’s Old 1:57.68 2Back Record |
| 27.78 | 27.86 |
| 29.34 (57.12) | 30.02 (57.88) |
| 29.64 | 29.86 |
| 29.85 | 29.94 |
With the final yet to come, Shortt already has comfortably dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:58.07 needed to notch his name on the Irish roster for this summer’s World Championships in Singapore.
Additionally, the teen now ranks 6th in the world on the season. Shortt already notched a mark of 53.90 in the semi-finals of the 100m back here as well, a result which cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 53.94.
2024-2025 LCM Men 200 Back
Morgan
1:55.55
| 2 | Roman MITYUKOV | SUI | 1:55.64 | 04/05 |
| 3 | Thomas CECCON | ITA | 1:55.71 | 04/21 |
| 4 | Pieter Coetzeé | RSA | 1:56.07 | 04/13 |
| 5 | HIDEKAZU TAKEHARA | JPN | 1:56.11 | 03/22 |
| 6 | Luke Greenbank | GBR | 1:56.20 | 04/20 |
| 7 | KODAI NISHIONO | JPN | 1:56.28 | 03/22 |
| 8 | Juho Lee | KOR | 1:56.52 | 03/24 |
| 9 | John SHORTT | IRL | 1:56.61 | 04/14 |
| 10 | Benedek KOVÁCS | HUN | 1:56.77 | 04/13 |
Speaking after the race, Shortt said, ‘It hurt quite a lot, but I knew I had that in me, especially after the 100 that was such a confidence boost during the weekend so I knew I could do something special there.
‘I felt good this morning and was pretty chilled so I knew I had to really go for it tonight and took it out that first 100 as hard as I could and just held on for dear life, but yeah I’m so so happy with that and just proud to be racing here in front of this crowd as well, it’s brilliant like.’
Cal will recruit him in 6 years