Scully Closes Out Paralympic Swimming European Championships With Season's Best 50m Backstroke

There was just one Irish swimmer in action on the final night of swimming at the Paralympic European Championships in Eindhoven, Holland. James Scully put in an impressive performance to close out the competition for Ireland's five senior Paralympic swimmers.

Swimming in the Final of the 50m Backstroke S5 Scully swam a season's best 46.50 seconds to finish in 7th place overall. Great Britain's Andrew Mullen picked up his fourth Gold medal of the championships winning the event in a new European Record of 37.56 seconds.

Two years out from the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, National Paralympic Swim Coach Jim Laverty can be pleased with his team's performance at the championships which included 2 Bronze medals, six lifetime best and six season's best swims.

James Scully was the standout performer with 2 Bronze medals in the 100m and 200m S5 Events. Ellen Keane had three fourth place finishes in the 100m Freestyle S9, 100m Breaststroke SB9 and missed out on Bronze today in the 100m Butterfly S9 final by just .18 of a second, while Ailbhe Kelly swam 3 lifetime bests on her senior international debut and is definitely one to watch for the future. Laurence McGivern also narrowly missed out on Bronze in the 100m Backstroke S9 and Jonathan McGrath was 6th overall in the 400m Freestyle S8.

Commenting on his team's performance this week Laverty said "I think the week went really well. We had a small team but I was really pleased how they stepped up during this week. We started off with a high on day 1 with 3 personal bests and a medal. Ellen, James and Ailbhe all swam personal bests this week and I think that's very encouraging going into Worlds in 2015, I'm really looking forward to seeing how they progress into Rio".