McGivern, McDonald and Scully all through to Finals on closing day of competition in Montrea

Laurence McGivern, Darragh McDonald and James Scully have all made it through to the Finals of their respective events on the final day of competition at the Paralympic Swimming World Championships in Montreal.

McGivern was first up this morning in the 100m Backstroke S9 heats. The 20 year old has had to wait out six days of competition before his first and only race finally arrived. Swimming in heat 2, McGivern was in lane 3 next to Paralympic Champion Matthew Cowdrey of Australia. McGivern started well turning first at the 50m mark in 31.90 ahead of Cowdrey and London Paralympic Games Bronze medallist Xiaobing Liu of China, but Cowdrey and Liu came back in the last 25 metres to touch just ahead of McGivern, Cowdrey in 1:05.89 and Liu in 1:06.16 with McGivern 3rd in 1:06.18.

Only one other swimmer was faster than McGivern in the heats, Paralympic Games Silver medallist James Crisp of Great Britain in 1:05.70. Just .45 of a second now separates the top 4 competitors going into tonight's Final.

"I'm really happy to have been able to get in and swim finally and I'm delighted to have made the Final" commented McGivern "During the race I could see Cowdrey out of the corner of my eye so I knew I was doing quite well, it was a tough swim but hopefully I can go faster in the Final tonight".

Darragh McDonald is also the fourth fastest qualifier going into the 100m Freestyle S6 Final tonight. McDonald clocked a time of 1:13.60 in heat 1 to finish third. Colombia's Nelson Crispin is the fastest qualifier in 1:11.24

Ireland's third finalist and last swim at the World Championships will be James Scully following a 6th place overall finish in the 50m Freestyle S5 heats. Scully's time of 38.72 is just off his best of 37.60. Brazil's Daniel Dias, who is going for his sixth Gold medal of these Championships, was the fastest qualifier in the event in 33.46