December 13, 2014, Lisburn, Ireland – Multiple event winners was the name of the game on the second day of Short Course Irish Nationals. The Lagan Valley Leisureplex saw several swimmers take home multiple pieces of hardware, as competitors doubled and tripled up on event wins.
Bethany Carson earned two gold medals just in today’s finals session, clocking the 100m butterfly win in 1:01.04 and the 100m individual medley win in 1:03.44. This was in addition to the two gold medals she won during yesterday’s session in the 200m freestyle and the 200m individual medley events.
Jamie Graham did some more damage today, winning his third gold medal of the competition thus far. He added a 100m breaststroke victory (1:00.78) to his previous national titles in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke from yesterday’s finals.
Another multiple event winner scored big today in the women’s 50m freestyle, as Bethy Firth touched the wall first in 25.95. This gold gets added to the duo of medals she earned on Friday’s session; bronze in the 200m IM and silver in the 100m freestyle.
15-year-old Danielle Hill is also collecting medals in a big way, earning today’s win in the women’s 200m backstroke (2:14.46) to add to her collection from yesterday (2 bronzes). Niamh Kilgallen doubled up on her 100m breaststroke silver, earning today’s shorter 50m distance win, while Cian Duffy came away with the men’s 200m IM event (2:03.16) after topping field in the 100m IM distance yesterday (56.78).
Brendan Gibbons won the men’s 1500m freestyle event, and the relay teams from Ards took home the wins in both the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay (women’s 3:52.54, men’s 3:26.31).
The Lagan Valley Leisureplex also saw its fair share of national record-breaking swimming, as 20-year-old Brendan Hyland swam his way to a new senior record in the men’s 200m butterfly, clocking a swift time of 1:57.82. This beats his old record by a super slim margin of just .07 (set at 1:57.89 in November).
The youngest swimmer in the women’s 400m freestyle final, Antoinette Neamt (13 years old), went on to break the junior national record in that event, winning in a time of 4:09.31. Neamt‘s time was over 7 seconds faster than her nearest competitors.
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