PARALYMPICS Ireland's Paralympian Darragh McDonald Wins 400m European Silver

Ireland's Darragh McDonald won a silver medal at the IPC European Swimming Championships in Iceland in the 400m Freestyle event (Class S6). On day one of the championships, the Silver Medallist from the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games got Ireland off to a flying start, finishing in second place with a time of 5.15.07 behind Anders Olsson who won in a world record time of 4.47.75.


Based in Wexford, this is McDonald's first major championship outing since his success in Beijing over a year ago. Speaking to assembled press after the event, a delighted McDonald said, "I am delighted with my silver medal tonight and it was once again an honour to represent my country at a major international competition, It was my first appearance at a European championships and I'm thrilled to add this medal to my silver medal for the same event in Beijing last year ".


Also in this evenings session, teenage swimmer, Ellen Keane improved her time from this mornings qualification to finish 7th in the final of the 100m Butterfly event (Class S9) with a time of 1.16.44. Keane, who is from Clontarf in Dublin, went into the final ranking 7th having set a personal best time of 1.16.95 in this mornings qualification. After her final Keane said, "I felt good in the heats this morning and was pleased with my time, so for the final I worked on holding my pace and working hard on my backend speed on the last 25 meters. I was so pleased to again set a new pb time tonight in the final."


Speaking from Reykjavik, High Performance Director of Paralympic Swimming, Dave Malone said: "Obviously I am
delighted with today's performances. Both performances were great and the medal for Ireland is very exciting. It is a
great achievement for Daragh to claim a silver medal in his first appearance at a European championships."


Tomorrow sees Ellen Keane return to the pool in the 200m Individual Medley and 100m Breaststroke events.


For further information contact Paralympic Council of Ireland Communications Offer John Fulham @ 087-2709182, email: communications@pcireland.ie