Strong start for Irish at European Short Course Swimming Championships

The Irish swimming squad enjoyed a strong start in the pool today on the first day of competition at the 2011 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Szczecin, Poland, setting four new Irish Records.

Melanie Nocher qualified for the semi-final of the 100m Backstroke event, setting a new Irish Senior Record time of 59.37 in the heats. In this evening's semi-final, she again went broke the Irish Senior Record, and was unlucky to progress to tomorrow's final, finishing in 15th place in a time of 59.30. Nocher's main event is the 200m Backstroke, taking place on Sunday.

Also in the 100m Backstroke, Kilkenny swimmer Jane Roberts produced a fantastic display to set a new Irish Junior Record time of 1:02.29. Roberts, who competed for Ireland at the European Junior Swimming Championships during the summer, also swam strongly in the 100m Freestyle this morning, finishing in a time of 57.70, a new personal best.

Grainne Murphy set a new Irish Senior Record in the 200m Individual Medley, finishing in 19th place in a time of 2:12.71. Fellow HPC-UL swimmer Shani Stallard also set a new personal best in this event, finishing in a time of 2:16.36. Murphy also swam in the 200m Butterfly heats, finishing in 18th place (2:12.13).

Bethany Carson, who trains at the High Performance Centre at the NAC in Dublin, set a new personal best time in the heats of the 100m Freestyle (55.91), finishing just ahead of Clare Dawson (56.09), though neither progressed beyond the heats.

Irish duo Nicholas Quinn (Castlebar SC) and Dan Sweeney (Sunday's Well SC) also performed strongly, both setting personal times of 1:02.95 and 1:03.23 respectively in the Men's 100m Breaststroke.

With 9 personal best times and 4 Irish records from just 12 swims today, National Performance Director Peter Banks had plenty to be happy with on Day 1. "This is a strong start for the Irish squad today with lots of personal best swims from our swimmers in a quality field here in Poland".

The competition continues tomorrow (Friday) and finishes on Sunday 11th December. Highlights on Day 2 will include Grainne Murphy in the 200m Breaststroke and 800m Freestyle and Aisling Cooney, who is swimming in the 50m Butterfly.

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