Athlone's Brendan Gibbons breaks two Irish Junior records

 

Athlone swimming star Brendan Gibbons broke two Irish Junior records at the Irish Short Course National Swimming Championships in Lisburn last weekend.

Last Saturday, 18-year-old Gibbons set a new Irish Junior standard in the 800m split of the 1500 metres, breaking the previous record of 8:11.00 that he had held since 2012 with a time of 8:09.02.

Brendan finished in second place behind Andrew Meegan, who improved on his own record from the 2012 Championships by almost two seconds finishing in 15:11.69.

On the final day of the championships on Sunday, Gibbons claimed second place in the 800m Freestyle Final, in a new Irish Junior Record of 8:06.29 breaking his previous record of 8:09.02 which was set the previous day.

Meegan emerged as the star of the show when he became the first Irishman to swim under 8 minutes in the 800m Freestyle. Meegan, who held the previous record of 8:00.59 which he set in January 2012, lowered that time to 7:59.92 in the final.

This swim will surely give Meegan confidence going into the European Championships later this month.

Both Gibbons and Meegan train at Swim Ireland’s NAC Performance Centre in Dublin.

There were six new Irish records broken on Sunday, bringing the total to fourteen records over the three days.