With Paris 2024 on the horizon, Irish swimmers had a fantastic opening meet of 2024 at the Flanders Swimming Cup in Belgium, coming away with an incredible twenty-nine medals, six of those individually coming from already Paris qualified Ellen Walshe.

Walshe topped the podium in the 50m and 100m Butterfly, 200m and 400m Individual Medley as well as collecting silver in the 200m Breaststroke and bronze in the 100m Backstroke.

The Templeogue swimmer was also part of two Ireland relays that collected gold. Walshe combined with Maria Godden, Victoria Catterson and Ellie McCartney in the 4x100m Medley Relay and with Godden, Catterson and Grace Davison in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay.

Catterson, swimming the 100m, 200m and 4000m Freestyle collected gold in the 100m and 200m and silver in the 400m Freestyle.

Grace Davison continued her impressive assault on the junior record books, with a new Irish Junior Record in the 100m Freestyle, the first of the year, finishing third in 56.62, breaking her own 2023 record of 56.93. The Ards swimmer also won gold in the 50m Freestyle and bronze in the 200m Individual Medley.

Niamh Coyne was victorious in the 100m Breaststroke, with the National Centre Dublin swimmer also winning bronze medals in the 50m and 200m Breaststroke.

National Centre Limerick’s Maria Godden won silver medals in the 100m and 200m Backstroke, with bronze also coming in the 50m Backstroke.

Godden’s NCL team-mate Ellie McCartney won two silver medals in the 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley, while National Centre Ulster’s Lottie Cullen won 50m Backstroke silver.

Four Irish swimmers were among the top five female swimmers at the meet with Walshe second, Cullen third, McCartney fourth, and Catterson fifth.

On the men’s side, just like their female counterparts, gold medals were won in both the 4x100m Medley and 4x100m Freestyle Relays. Matthew Walsh Hussey, Oisin Tebite, Jack Cassin and Thomas Leggett combined in the Freestyle Relay, while Cassin and Walsh-Hussey were joined by Brandon Biss and Eoin Corby to top the podium in the Medley Relay.

Cassin was also on the podium individually, winning 200m Butterfly silver and 100m Butterfly bronze. Eoin Corby won bronze in the 200m Breaststroke and Shane Ryan was also a bronze medallist, in the 50m Butterfly.

Full results available here – Flanders Swimming Cup 2024 – SPLASH Meet Manager 11 (zwemfed.be)