SWIMMING Irish Gold Medal for Murphy at European Junior Swimming Championships 2009

Limerick High Performance Centre swimmer Grainne Murphy has won Gold for Ireland today in the final of the 400m Individual Medley at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Prague. Her winning time of 4.40.88 was a new European Junior Championship and Irish Junior Record, making her the first Irish swimmer to win gold as this competition.

Murphy's finishing time was just 0.8 seconds outside of Michelle Smith deBruin's current Irish Senior Record (4.39.18) which she set at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Murphy had qualified first in the heats this morning in a time of 4:46.66, itself a new Irish Junior Record, which then set her up as the number one seed going into this evening's final, almost 2 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

Ronald Claes, Swim Ireland's Limerick High Performance Centre Head Coach where Grainne is based, described the victory as "a momentous achievement that marks a turning point for Irish Swimming".

Later tonight Grainne will also compete in the final of the 1500m Freestyle hoping for more glory.

Two other Irish swimmers were also in action today at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. Ballina's Tara Dunne competed today in the 200m Backstroke and swam just outside her Personal Best, missing out on a place in the semi-finals. She swims again tomorrow in the 400m Freestyle.

Michael Dawson achieved a Personal Best performance in the 200m Breaststroke in a time of 2:22.04 but was unfortunately just outside the qualification for the semi-finals. Michael will next compete in the 50m Breaststroke on Friday and 100m Breaststroke on Saturday, the last day of competition.

Meanwhile at the World University Games, Belgrade today, Barry Murphy and Ryan Harrison both swam inside the previous Irish record mark for the 100m freestyle in their heats swims this morning. Murphy, who broke the record on Sunday's lead off leg of the men's 4x100m freestyle relay recorded a new record time of 50.02 this, with Harrison not far behind, finishing in 50.19 sec.

Andrew Meegan was also in action today, swimming the heats of the 1500m freestyle in a time of 16.00.45.

For further information contact:

Chantal Gibney, Swim Ireland
Ph: 086 3817933
Email: edo2@swimireland.ie