11th Place finish for Bryan at European Open Water Swimming Championships
Ireland has one swimmer - Chris Bryan - competing for Ireland at the European Open Water Swimming Championships taking place this week in Eilat, Israel. Bryan, who has shown great form this year after finishing in 8th place in the 5km event at the World Championships earlier this summer, had a very credible 11th place finish in the men's 10km event yesterday, with a time of 1 hour 53min and 39.9 seconds (13.7 seconds behind the winner).
"Chris had a great race, his best 10km result in a major event so far being only 13 seconds behind the winner. It was a really tough race with a lot of fighting going on so that takes a lot out of you if you want to keep your position and ranking," commented his coach Ronald Claes after the race.
"He's been so consistent all year long, finishing at the high end of the pack in European Cup races, World Championships and now also these Europeans. Last year in Budapest Chris finished 32nd on 6min 41 seconds behind the winner so he's made huge progress this year," he added.
Chris competes in the Men's 5k event on Saturday at 11am local time. "I spoke with Chris today and he is recovering well and looking forward to the 5km race on Saturday, which will be a time trial event with individual starts every minute. He'll have some good guys ahead of him to chase and I'm sure he'll do his country proud," said Claes speaking from his base in Limerick.