Bryan wins bronze in Europe

Ireland's Chris Bryan this morning finished 3rd in the first leg of the European 10K Open Water Cup, in Eilat, Israel in a time of 1:54:14.45, his first top three finish this season. Bryan was beaten by 2011 World bronze medallist Sergey Bolshakov (1:54:03.75) of Russia and Hungary's Gergley Gyurta (1:54:03.84). The European Open Water Cup is held over four swims in Israel, Turkey, the Netherlands and Italy finishing in September 2012.

Bryan, who swim's out of Swim Ireland's High Performance Centre in the University of Limerick will now focus on his one chance for Olympic qualification at the FINA Olympic 10K Marathon on June 10th in Setubal, Portugal.

Also today, a seven strong Irish team of Karl Burdis, Bethany Carson, Sycerika McMahon, Melanie Nocher, Fiona Doyle, Shani Stallard and Nuala Murphy departed for Debrecen, Hungary for the European Swimming Championships.

The Championships will host a record entry of 570 swimmers from 44 LEN Federations. This will be the last chance for the Irish and many other countries pool swimmers to qualify for the London Olympic Games. The Championships will run from Monday 21st to Sunday 27th May.

National Performance Director Peter Banks said "we have a strong team travelling to Hungary and all the squad are in good form and looking forward to get racing and trying to achieve some qualifying standards for London."

First up on Monday for the Irish are Bethany Carson (50m Fly), Karl Burdis (100m Back), Nuala Murphy (400m IM), Melanie Nocher (200m Back). The Women's 4x100m Freestyle relay team will also be in action.