CUSAI Ireland Miss Out On Medals - WUGs Saturday round-up
Irish athletes featured in three deciders on the penultimate day of competition at the World University Games in Belgrade, but despite gutsy performances failed to pick up any medals.
Swimming -
Barry Murphy featured in the final of the 50m freestyle for Ireland but failed to capitalise on the excellent times he picked up in qualifying, as he finished in eighth place with a time of 22.70 - half a second off the winner Andrea Rolla of Italy.
Murphy broke the Irish record twice on his way into the final, clocking 22.41 seconds in the heat and then 22.25 seconds in the semi-final.
The Irish foursome of Karl Burdis, Ryan Harrison, Murphy and Andrew Meegan were in action in the men's 4x100m medley relay and finished fourth in their heat. The time of 3:45.70 minutes left them 13th placed overall and missing out on a final spot.
Nuala Murphy raced in the women's 400m freestyle heats placing third in her heat and 10th overall in a time of 4:19.72 minutes.
Also, Andrew Meegan won his heat of the men's 400m individual medley, but finished 18th overall with a time of 4:35.57 minutes.
Athletics -
The women's half marathon got under way first thing in the morning and helped by what could be called typical Irish weather, Niamh Devlin ran a comfortable 1:21:29 hours. The cool rain was a far cry from the heat and humidity of previous days in the Serbian capital and Devlin finished in 15th place.
DCU's Ian McDonald has missed out on a place in the final of the 110m hurdles after finishing eighth in his heat with a time of 14.21 seconds. McDonald had qualified for the semis after finishing third in his heat where he ran an impressive 14.14 seconds.
In the evening's 5,000m for women, Linda Byrne ran 16:12.54 minutes to finish ninth out of 17 runners.
Look ahead to Sunday -
Coming up on Sunday in the final day of the Games, Irish duo Deirdre Byrne and Hazel Murphy race in the final of the women's 1,500m which gets underway at 1:25pm (12:25pm Irish time).
Ireland's women are well represented on the track tomorrow with the 4x400m relay team in with a shout of picking up a medal in the 1:40pm (12:40pm Irish time) race.