SWIMMING REVIEW: Hill, Brines and Ferguson shine at Irish Championships

Jordanstown teenager Conor Ferguson pictured in the men's 200m backstroke final at the 2015 Irish SC Championships at Lisburn. INLT 50-916-CON

The trio of Danielle Hill, Conor Ferguson (both from Newtownabbey) and Conor Brines were all in impressive form.

Ferguson continued his backstroke dominance, winning the men’s 50m in a Ulster senior record.

Ferguson swam an impressive 24.94 seconds to take gold with Limerick’s Alan Corby (25.78) in second and Jack McMillan (26.58) third.

Conor Brines pictured in the men's 100m butterfly final at the 2015 Irish SC Championships at Lisburn. Photos: Presseye

Ferguson had claimed his first title of the weekend in Friday’s 200m backstroke final. The 16-year-old was just off his Irish senior record in the final, touching in at 1:58.30, while Trojans’ Ben Griffin was second in 2:01.58.

Conor Brines won the men’s 100m butterfly in a time of 53.92 seconds, beating James Brown (55.83) and Benjamin Doyle (56.22).

The 19-yearold followed up on Sunday with the 50m butterfly - again a new Ulster senior record in a time of 24.25 ahead of Commonwealth Games swimmer Conor Munn (Ards) and Mathew Coward (NAC).

Hill broke an Irish record on day two of the competition when she won the 200m backstroke final. The Larne swimmer knocked seven tenths of a second off Aisling Cooney’s 2007 record of 2:12.79 finishing in 2:12.03.

In Sunday’s 100m backstroke event less than a second seperated the top three finishers in the women’s event.

Jane Roberts (UCD) touched first only 0.02 of a second ahead of Hill (Larne) with Laoise Fleming in third.

The club’s individual swimmers from Larne included Mark Doherty, Erin and Amy Barr, Daniel Harkin, Lui Hurson and Chloe McKay Sam Brown and Sinead Gourley.

There were bronze medals for both the women’s and men’s 4 x 100m medley swim teams on Friday night which included Sam, Erin, Sinead and Danielle, with Conor, Lui, Conor and Mark compting in the men’s.