Walshe Makes Irish History, Bach & Gastaldi Down National Records In 200 Fly ...Middle East

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2025 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

24-year-old Olympian Ellen Walshe of Ireland got the job done in this women’s 200m butterfly in spades, becoming the first-ever European Short Course Championships gold medalist from her nation.

Walshe stopped the clock tonight in a time of 2:03.24 en route to topping the podium.

Although that was off her lifetime best and Irish national record of 2:02.36 notched this past October, it was enough to hold off a charging runner-up in Helena Rosendahl Bach of Denmark.

Bach touched less than half a second back in 2:03.55 to score a new national record as the silver medalist.

Entering this competition, Bach held the national record at the 2:03.86 established at the 2023 edition of this competition. Tonight, however, she beat that mark by a significant margin to land on the podium.

Bronze this evening went to Italy’s Anita Gastaldi, who touched in 2:04.07, a new Italian national record.

The former Italian standard stood at the 2:04.20 Ilaria Bianchi put on the books at the 2019 European Short Course Championships.

As for Gastaldi, her previous lifetime best prior to these championships sat at the 2:05.69 turned in just last month at the Nico Sapio Trophy. She dropped significant time and cleared the 2:05 barrier for the first time in her career en route to bagging the bronze in tonight’s contest.

WOMEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

Top 8 Finishers:

Ellen Walshe claimed Ireland’s third title of the week, and became the first Irish woman to win gold at the European Short Course Championships.

The fastest swimmer in the field coming into these championships, Walshe looked well off the pace throughout the first 100. She touched in 6th place at halfway in 1:00.02, but moved up to 5th over the next 50 meters. She scorched home in 31.44 on the final 50 to come alongside and then pull away from Helena Rosendahl Bach and take the win in 2:03.24, 0.33 seconds off her Irish record.

Laura Lahtinen had been the early leader as she touched in 58.44 at the 100 mark, but faded over the second half of the race to finish 4th in 2:04.40. The two other swimmers who turned under 59 seconds at halfway came back slightly stronger, and both broke their respective national record.

Helena Bach defended her silver medal from 2023 in a new Danish mark of 2:03.55, while Italy’s Anita Gastaldelli shaved 0.13 seconds off Ilaria Bianchi’s Italian mark in 2:04.07. That is the second Italian record of the evening after Sara Curtis‘ 50 back at the start of the session.

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