Another of the long course (50m pool) records former Olympic champion Michelle Smith had held for 25 years was broken at the Commonwealth Games on Friday by Ireland’s Victoria Catterson.
The Ards swimmer clocked a time of 1:59.86 in the 200m freestyle to become just the second Irish woman to swim the distance in under the two-minute mark.
Smith’s record freestyle mark, set in August 1997, stood at 1:59.93.
The Dubliner, who won three gold medals and a bronze in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, continues to hold three other individual Irish long course swimming records, all of them achieved in 1996. She retains the 400m freestyle (4:07.25), the 200m butterfly (2:09.91) and the 400 IM (4:39.18).
The last time one of Smith’s records was broken was 2013 when Bethany Carson broke her 100m butterfly Irish record.
That was since bettered by Ellen Walshe who became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier in 2020. She swam 59.54 for gold at the Flanders Swim Cup in Belgium and subsequently lowered the mark last year to the current record of 59.32.
