Strong Irish Team Of Five Depart For IPC Paralympic Swimming European Championships

The five strong Irish Paralympic Swimming team departed Dublin early this morning bound for Eindhoven for the IPC European Swimming Championships which are set to take place from August 4th - 10th.

The team, which is proudly sponsored by Allianz, features three swimmers who medalled at last summer's IPC World Championships; Double Paralympian (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) Ellen Keane alongside London Paralympians James Scully and Laurence McGivern. They are joined by another London Paralympian in Jonathan McGrath, and newcomer at this level fifteen year old Ailbhe Kelly.

Keane, who has had to adjust her preparations for these Championships to focus on her Leaving Cert which she successfully completed in June, is competing in no less than six events at the Championships. The 100m Breaststroke, and the 200m Individual Medley (IM) are her top ranked events.

Fellow National Aquatic Centre club mate James Scully will compete in four events with the 200m Freestyle his leading distance. Laurence McGivern, who swims with Invictus in Belfast competes in just one event; the 100m backstroke in which he won bronze at last year's World Championships, and is targeting a lifetime best swim in it, as is Killaloe's Jonathan McGrath in the best of his two events; the 400m Freestyle.

Fifteen year old Ailbhe Kelly from Castleknock swimming in her first major international competition will be hoping to swim personal bests in her events, and gain valuable experience at this elite level. Her 400m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke are her top events of the four she will race in.

The team set off for the Europeans on the back of a successful warm weather training camp in the Canary Islands which they just completed on Tuesday. Speaking about the camp and the week ahead Paralympics Ireland Performance Manager Dave Malone; himself a three time Paralympic Games swimming medallist commented; "We've just completed a great preparation camp in the Canaries with eighteen sessions over the eleven days aimed at really fine tuning preparations for next week. We're confident the athletes are now in a strong position to perform to their potential against Europe's best. They're really looking forward to getting underway in Eindhoven."

Almost 400 swimmers from 37 countries will be competing at these Championships which will be held at the Peter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium.
All heats and finals from the event will be streamed live on www.paralympicsport.tv and there is also a website at www.eindhoven2014.com The event will also be covered live and via highlights on Channel 4. Paralympics Ireland will be tweeting results, and issuing press releases daily with details of the Irish performances, and Sportsfile will be issuing images of the Irish swimmers reproduction fee free during the event.