Kilkenny swimmer Godden ready to make waves in Glasgow

Maria Godden will be hoping to make waves for Kilkenny when she represents the county at a major swimming championships.

Godden, a member of the Kilkenny Swim Club, is one of 19 athletes selected by Swim Ireland to compete in the 2019 LEN European Short Course Championships in Glasgow this December.

Eleven senior and eight junior athletes have been selected for the five-day event, with all team members travelling on from these Championships to compete in the 2019 Irish SC Championships in Dublin the following week.

The Selection Policy allowed for both a Senior and Junior cohort to be selected to the Championships, with selections made from individual’s performances in their identified summer benchmark meet in relation to the IOC’s 2020 Olympic Qualifying Time.

Shane Ryan will be looking to emulate his performances from one year earlier where he collected a bronze medal at the World Short Course Championships in China, Swim Ireland Swimmer of the Year Brendan Hyland also had a top 10 finish at those championships in the 200m Butterfly. At the 2017 event in Copenhagen, Jordan Sloan and Mona McSharry were finalists with Conor Ferguson reaching a semi-final.

"Our team is a blend of experience and youth, with a number of our athletes able to progress through the rounds and challenge for the podium," said National Performance Director Jon Rudd, Team Leader for the Irish Team. "It is also an opportunity for a number of our very promising junior athletes to start to feel their way in senior swimming. Their junior years will be over and done soon and this is the swimming world in which they will need to learn to operate going forwards."

Godden is coached in Kilkenny by John Duffy.