Ellen Walshe says 'kicking like hell' was key to historic European gold medal
Ireland's Ellen Walshe celebrates after winning the gold medal for Women's 200m Butterfly in Lublin, Poland(Image: ©INPHO/Andrea Staccoli)Ellen Walshe powered to a historic gold medal on the closing night at the European Aquatics Championships in Poland.The Templeogue star became the first Irish woman to be crowned a European Short Course Champion after a stunning performance in the 200m Butterfly final."I just kicked like hell," said the 24-year-old after a strong finish to seal her her first senior international gold. "You have to enjoy the moment because it's over now. It's over very quick, but it was great to have the flag and see my parents in the stands."It was a stacked field of fliers, so it was going to be about who had the better backend, you just have to hold on for the first 150m and then just try bring it home the last 50 and that's just what I did."Walshe's gold brought Ireland’s medal tally to seven, including three gold medals from Walshe, Daniel Wiffen (1500m Freestyle) and John Shortt (200m Backstroke)..The focus now turns to the Irish Winter Championships at the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin this Friday to Sunday for Walshe and the Ireland team."It was absolutely savage, each and every one of them played a massive part in everyone's success this week, and I think we all got to kind of drive off that and just use it into the next season," said Walshe."It's extremely important to keep the energy really high in the team, obviously some results can be disappointing, but we’ve got to use each other and feed off each other through this meet."Just 30 minutes after her gold medal win, Walshe was back in the pool for the 400m Individual Medley Final where she finished seventh.As well as the seven podium finishes in Poland, Irish swimmers have set 19 Irish records."This has been an outstanding Championships for Irish Swimming," said Interim National Performance Director Andy Reid."The athletes have approached the meet with exceptional professionalism in their preparations and have demonstrated impressive maturity and composure in their race execution through the rounds."This team has set a new benchmark for Irish swimming, and we are immensely proud of the way they represented Ireland on the European stage."Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond.
