Double Silver For Ireland On Final Day In Tbilisi

Irish swimmers brought the total medal tally to 5 as Ellen Walshe and Conor Ferguson both won Silver on the final day of competition at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Conor Ferguson doubled his Silver medal tally in the 200m Backstroke Final adding to the 100m medal he won on Tuesday. The 15 year old of Larne Swimming Club advanced from the morning heats in 6th place swimming 2:05.83. He then put in a fantastic performance in the Final to claim his second medal of the week in 2 minutes 3.21 seconds. Russia's Pavel Tatarenko won the Gold medal in 2:03.21

Just minutes later Ellen Walshe won her first international medal taking Silver in the 100m Butterfly. The 13 year old from Templeogue SC had set an Irish Junior Record in yesterday's semi-final of 1:01.72 and went on to win the Silver medal in today's Final in 1:02.17. Petra Barocsai of Hungary took Gold in 1:01.46 with Belgium's Charissa Jochems in the Bronze medal position in 1:02.44.

The 2015 European Youth Olympic Festival is Swim Ireland's best to date. The five medals were won by three swimmers including Walshe, Ferguson and Antoinette Neamt who won 800m Freestyle Bronze and 400m Freestyle Silver. Ireland's previous best had been in 2009 when Sycerika McMahon won a silver and two Bronze medals. The eight strong team competed in nine Finals which included two fourth place finishes.

Also today, Niamh Coyne progressed to her second Final in as many days in the 200m Breaststroke. Coyne was ranked 8th going into this afternoon's Final after a 2:39.70 swim in the heats. The Tallaght and Swim Ireland NAC Performance Centre swimmer went on to set a new personal best and take almost 2 seconds off her morning time in the Final to finish 6th overall in 2:37.83

In this morning's heats Emma Moloney touched in 2:44.18 in the 200m Breaststroke and Robert Powell concluded the week with a 2:14.20 in the 200m Butterfly. Rebecca Reid clocked 2:10.12 in the 200m Freestyle while Jack McMillan swam the 1500m Freestyle in 17:04.88. Ireland's 400m Medley Relay of Rebecca Reid, Niamh Coyne, Ellen Walshe and Antoinette Neamt just missed out on the Final by six tenths of a second finishing 9th in 4:25.74.

Chris Bryan returns to action at the World Championships in Russia tomorrow. The Clare native will compete in the 25K Open Water swim in the Kazanka River in Kazan.

The pool event will begin on Sunday with Fiona Doyle, Sycerika McMahon and Alex Murphy competing over the seven day competition running to Saturday 8th August. On Sunday, McMahon will compete in the 200m Individual Medley with Murphy swimming in the 100m Breaststroke heats.