Aer Lingus swimmer Andrew Meegan kicked off the 2013 Irish National Swimming Championships at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) in Dublin breaking his own Irish Senior Record for the demanding mens 1,500 metres by over four seconds.

The four-day Nationals this year are also qualifiers for the World Championships in Barcelona this summer and Meegan’s time of 15 mins 38.14 is a B qualifying standard, but would not be good enough to get a place on the Irish squad as Swim Ireland are only taking A qualifying standard swimmers.

Two other Irish swimmers, Barry Murphy and Fiona Doyle, picked up gold medals in the 50 metres breastroke.

Murphy took gold in 27.53 seconds, a quarter of a second outside his own Irish record. Doyle won the women’s equivalent in 31.89.