2020 IRISH WINTER MEET
- Thursday, December 17th – Saturday, December 19th
- National Aquatic Centre, Dublin, Ireland
- SCM (25m) for heats; LCM (50m) for finals
- Select Group of Elites Only
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
The 2020 Irish Winter Meet concluded today in Dublin, with the competition replacing the usual overall Irish Championships which typically take place around this time.
As we reported earlier this month, the number of participants at the elite meet had been drastically reduced from its usual 600 count to over a handful. This was specifically to adhere to the government mandate released stating that no matches or other sporting events can take place, with only an exception made for ‘elite’ sports.
Yesterday, Jack McMillan and Eoin Corby rewrote the Irish record books on the senior and junior level, respectively, and the pair were back at it to close the meet.
First, with 20-year-old McMillan, the Bangor swimmer made it happen tonight in the men’s 400m freestyle, although the first half is where his record happened. Splitting a 1:47.10 in the first half of the race, McMillan shaved .09 off of his own Irish Record set last night in the individual 200m free event.
McMillan’s 1:47.10 falls just .08 shy of the FINA ‘A’ cut needed to qualify for the postponed 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. He’ll have another opportunity to better that outing at the Irish Open Championships in April.
After the race, McMillan stated, “I just felt like I could give it another go because it was so close to that FINA A yesterday.I just gave it my best shot. Unfortunately, I was really close again, but it just sets me up well for next year in April time, for trials, for the real thing. It’s given me a real confidence boost.
Splits are not available at this time.
For 18-year-old Corby, the National Centre Limerick swimmer overtook his own Irish Junior Record en route to placing 2nd in the men’s 200m breast. Behind winner Darragh Greene‘s 2:11.09, Corby clocked 2:13.24 to replace his previous PB of 2:13.35 from 2019.
National Performance Director Jon Rudd said of Team Ireland’s results at this meet, “It won’t be a surprise to anyone to hear me say that 2020 has been a challenging year for our sport, our athletes and all of the aquatics community.
But our Performance athletes have stepped up at this meet despite all of the difficulties, the uncertainty and the disruption that they have experienced in the last 10 months. We would have loved to have accommodated our usual contingent of athletes over these three days, but we also have to say that we are delighted to be able to run something for this discrete number of identified athletes as we progress into the Olympic year.
To have 5 Senior and 4 Junior National records broken, not only short course but long course too at this meet is a real testament to the resilience and steel of some of these athletes – and their coaches – and we can enter 2021 with a new confidence and conviction that Irish swimming continues to make the kind of strides we both want and need”
