McMahon, Murphy 18th at World Championships in Barcelona

Irish swimmers Sycerika McMahon and Barry Murphy both achieved lifetime best performances on the first day of swimming at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.

McMahon was first up in the 200m Individual Medley, an event in which she was 22nd in the 2012 Olympic Games. The 18 year old had a strong start turning in 6th after the first 50 metres of Butterfly, although falling back to 10th after the Backstroke leg she put in a strong Breaststroke and Freestyle to finish 8th in the heat in a new personal best time of 2:14.38 and 18th overall. Hungary's Katinka Hosszu was the fastest qualifier in 2:08.45.

"I'm happy that I did a personal best, it being so close to a semi-finial position though is a downside to it" commented McMahon "but I've still got the 100 Freestyle left so I'll just go all out for that."

Barry Murphy continued his good form of late with a new personal best and Irish Senior Record of 23.65 in the 50m Butterfly heats. Murphy had set the previous record of 24.21 in June and was pleased with his performance saying "The goal time coming in was 23.6 and to do it was great, I would have liked to get a semi-final but we're at this level and everyone is swimming fast. This swim puts me in a good place for the 50m Breaststroke in 2 days." The Dubliner finished 18th overall.

Fiona Doyle will be the only Irish swimmer in action tomorrow when she takes to the pool for the heats of the 100m Breaststroke, an event in which she won Silver at the World University Games in Russia earlier this month.