2020 FLANDERS SWIMMING CUP
- Saturday, January 18th & Sunday, January 19th
- Olympic Aquatic Centre Wezenberg, Antwerp, Belgium
- 50m (LCM)
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
While competing on day 2 of the 2020 Flanders Swimming Cup in Antwerp, Belgium, Ellen Walshe produced a monster swim for Ireland in the women’s 100m butterfly.
After establishing herself as the 6th seeded swimmer with a morning swim of 1:01.59 in the heats, the 18-year-old fired off a head-turning mark of 59.54 to become her nation’s first-ever female to dip under the minute mark.
Walshe split 28.18/31.36 to notch her 59.54 gold medal-worthy effort tonight, giving her a new personal best by almost a full second. Entering this meet, her previous lifetime quickest was represented by the 1:00.44 put up in Dublin in March of 2019.
With her effort tonight, however, Walshe’s sub-minute time now checks-in as the new Irish senior record, overtaking the 1:00.21 Shauna O’Brien put on the books in 2015.
Splits for O’Brien’s former record included 28.07/32.14, showing how Walshe’s 59.54 was much quicker on the back end.
Walshe represented the only swimmer under 1:00 tonight, with the next closest competitor, Kinge Zandriga of the Netherlands, checking in with 1:00.01 for silver.
