Mixed day for Irish team in Shanghai

Ireland had two swimmers in action in the pool today at the World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China - sixteen year-old Sycerika McMahon from Co. Down and twenty-five year old Barry Murphy from Dublin. McMahon, competing in her first World Championships finished third in her heat of the 400m freestyle in 4 minutes 16 seconds.44, with an overall ranking of 24th place following the heats this morning. The top 8 swimmers from the heats progressed through to this evening's final which gets underway at 18.00pm local time (11.00am Irish time). McMahon is the European Junior champion over this event and recently claimed gold at the European Junior Swimming Championships in the 400m freestyle in Serbia a couple of weeks ago.

Murphy, who went into the event this morning seeded 20th had a disappointing swim today in the 100m breaststroke, finishing in 1 minute 2 seconds.50, almost two seconds slower that his all-time best which he swam earlier this year in Indianapolis and where he also swam inside the FINA 'A' qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympic Games.

"The whole race just didn't feel very good, I felt low in the water from the start and I didn't have that pop that I usually have. It was pretty disappointing," commented Murphy from the mixed zone following the race.

"I've changed some things around this year training wise and I did a longer taper than usual for this meet. Maybe it's not what suits me right now. I was pretty psyched [before the race] and obviously I've been waiting a long time for this meet to come around. After that time in March I was really excited, but I guess it just didn't work out," reflected Barry.

National Performance Director for Swim Ireland Peter Banks, who is with the team in Shanghai said "There's no doubt Barry was disappointed. He is going to look back at his taper and maybe it was longer than he needed. Sycerika's 400m freestyle was a best morning swim and it was a good experience for her learning how to deal with swimming at a major Championship like this - a positive start overall for Sycerika."

The meet continues for seven more days, both McMahon and Murphy each have more swims to race. Irish swimmers in action tomorrow on day two of competition are Sycerika McMahon in the 100m breaststroke, Melanie Nocher in the 100m backstroke and Grلinne Murphy in the 1500m freestyle. Heats gets underway tomorrow morning at 09.00am local time / 02.00am Irish time.

Issued by Swim Ireland, whose High Performance Programme is supported and funded by the Irish Sports Council.