Swim Ireland’s 2025 Irish Open Swimming Championships and World Championships Trials start on 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.
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.
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.
Speaking ahead of the Championships, Swim Ireland’s National Performance Director Jon Rudd said, “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. 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. We wish all Irish athletes the very best luck in their final days of preparation as we head into Saturday and very much look forward to seeing the Irish record books being re-written once again in our National pool. The stage is very much set!”
Initial Qualification Time Achieved: Daniel Wiffen (800m 1500m Freestyle), Danielle Hill (100m Backstroke), Ellen Walshe (200m, 400m IM), Mona McSharry (100m, 200m Breaststroke), Shane Ryan (50m Freestyle), Tom Fannon (50m Freestyle)
*All swimmers will need to compete in the same individual event/s at the 2025 Irish Open Championships to assure the National Performance Director of competitive readiness and achieve the Consideration Time detailed in Table 2 here.
Qualification Time Achieved: Róisín NíRiain, Barry McClements, Dearbhaile Brady, Deaten Registe, Síomha Brady
2025 World University Games in Berlin, Germany, 17th – 23rd July
2025 European Aquatics U23 Championships in Samorin, Slovakia, 26th – 28th June
2025 World Aquatics Junior Championships in Otopeni, Romania, 19th – 24th August
2025 European Junior Aquatics Championships in Samorin, Slovakia, 1st – 6th July
2025 European Youth Olympic Festival in Skopje, Macedonia, 20th – 26th July
Get all the latest news about upcoming sporting events, top tips on training and exclusive interviews.
