Shane Ryan rolled back the years in Budapest on Friday evening as the 30-year-old won a brilliant World Championships Bronze medal in the 50m Backstroke, the National Centre Dublin swimmer, coached by Steve Beckerleg, last won the same medal in the same race in China in 2018.
Ellen Walshe continued her attack on the Irish Record books with an eighth record in the 100m Butterfly Semi-Final, securing her place in Saturday’s Final.
It was an historical and emotional night for Ryan as he bagged the bronze medal in a new Irish Record of 22.56, only .09 of a second separated the three medallists, with neutral athlete Miron Lifintsev claiming gold in 22.47 followed by Australia’s Isaac Cooper for silver in 22.49.
Ryan’s previous Irish Record had stood since 2018 when he was last in a World Final and claimed Ireland’s first World Short Course medal in 22.76. Ireland has had two additional World Championships (SC) medallists since in Ellen Walshe (silver) and Mona McSharry (bronze) in 2021.
A delighted Ryan spoke after the race ‘I love the outside lane, outside smoke, you have a clean lane next to you, I think it’s like because I’m a bit older, I know just what to do and each swim, I need to be better and I cleaned it up right and it worked out, I couldn’t believe it. Look I came in, I knew I wanted to make top eight, and then it was just going out and having fun and racing the guys and that’s what I did tonight and came out third which is great and a PB.’
After receiving his medal Ryan added ‘I’m good, it’s nice to see the tri-colour flag being raised again, now I need to get ready for that 50m Free tomorrow’.
Ryan is back in action on Saturday in the 50m Freestyle heats.
Ellen Walshe was in flying form as she raced in yet another world record race, this time next to the World Record holder Gretchen Walsh (52.87) in the 100m Butterfly. Their second semi-final proved to be the faster of the two with the top three swimmers claiming the top three seeds for Saturday’s Final at 16.32 (Ireland), Walshe taking the third place.
The Templeogue swimmer took over half a second off the record of 56.17 she had set on Friday morning, going under 56 seconds for the first time in 55.50 seconds.
Speaking after her race Walshe said ‘What a race to be a part of, the World Record holder and then it was broken again, I was right beside it so yeah, it’s phenomenal and exciting for tomorrow night.’
Asked about what she worked on between heats and the semi-final Walshe added ‘I think I was just practicing the small things, like turns, underwaters, breakouts and stuff, it really does come down to the small things that make a difference and I guess being beside the world record holder you’re going to try and hang on as close as you can but yeah it was a great race.’
Walshe is due to back in the pool on Saturday morning for the 400m Individual Medley heats.
Irish swimmers have a busy day on Saturday with six additional swimmers joining Ryan and Walshe in action. Jack Cassin competes in the 400m Individual Medley, Danielle Hill returns for the 50m Freestyle with Tom Fannon joining Ryan in the Men’s 50m Freestyle heats.
Eoin Corby and Niamh Coyne are back on the blocks for the heats of the 50m Breaststroke while Nathan Wiffen competes in the 800m Freestyle but will have to wait until the evening session for the fastest heat.