Swim Ireland’s 2025 Irish Open Swimming Championships and World Championships Trials start this Saturday 12th April at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
The 5-day event will see over three hundred swimmers from over 50 clubs compete for National titles in thirty-four individual events and for places on senior National Teams, including the World Aquatics Championships (50m), World Para Swimming Championships and World University Games, as well as age-group competitions including the European Youth Olympic Festival, the European Aquatics Junior Championships and the European Aquatics Under 23 Championships.
The opening day of competition will see Daniel and Nathan Wiffen compete in the 800m Freestyle, Danielle Hill and John Shortt feature in the 100m Backstroke and Ellen Walshe, who recently broke the longest standing Irish Record (200m Butterfly) swim in both the 200m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly.
Olympic Champion Daniel Wiffen, Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry, Olympic finalist Ellen Walshe and semi-finalists Tom Fannon and Danielle Hill have all achieved initial qualification times for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore following their appearances in Paris last Summer, while Shane Ryan achieved such a time at the European Championships in June. All swimmers will still need to compete in the same individual event(s) at the Irish Open to assure their competitive readiness and achieve a secondary consideration time.
For the World Para Swimming Championships, also taking place in Singapore, four Paris Paralympians, Barry McClements, Dearbhaile Brady, Deaten Registe and silver and bronze medallist Róisín NíRiain have already achieved the qualification standard and are joined by Síomha Brady.
2025 Olympians Grace Davison and Victoria Catterson will also feature at the Championships, along with numerous strong contenders including (amongst others) John Shortt, Nathan Wiffen, Evan Bailey, Ellie McCartney, Lottie Cullen and Maria Godden. In all events bar the longer distances, each will each have two or three opportunities (event specific) across the competition to secure qualification times in their respective events.
“With six Ireland National Teams all looking to be filled for Championship events this summer, there’s a whole world of opportunity waiting for our athletes across these five days in Dublin,” said Swim Ireland’s National Performance Director Jon Rudd.
“This is also the first opportunity for athletes to qualify for the National programme for the 2025-2026 season, and it is for these reasons that we have provided athletes with three opportunities (heats, semi-finals and finals) in most events to post the times necessary to gain a green jacket this summer, with the 400m, 800m and 1500m events having heats and finals only.”
Tickets are available for the evening sessions each of the five days, allowing us to see our Olympic and Paralympic stars in action in home water.
Further Reading for Sport for Business members:
Daniel Wiffen in Surfing, World Records and More
SPORT FOR BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
A rare chance to see such talent on their home patch in a competitive environment. Worth taking.
WHAT’S UP NEXT?
The Championships run from 12th to 16th April at the Sport Ireland Campus
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