SWIMMING Irish Men Destroy 4x100m Medley Record

Ireland's Swimming Team finished their campaign at the World Swimming Championships today on a high - with the men's 4x100m medley relay squad destroying the Irish Senior record by almost 6 seconds - 3.39.87 - to win their heat, wiping out the rest of the field in their midst.

A courageous swim by Karl Burdis, who established an Irish Senior record on the lead off backstroke leg (54.44), set the foursome up to be in the lead after the first 100m of the race. Barry Murphy then dove in for the breaststroke leg, retaining the Irish lead. He was followed by Conor Leaney on butterfly and Irish record holder Ryan Harrison anchoring the squad on freestyle. The previous Irish record mark of 3.45.70 was established just 3 weeks ago at the World University Games in Belgrade - with 3 out of 4 of today's relay members on the squad in Belgrade also.

Speaking after the race, Ryan Harrison said "That record is 6 seconds faster than what we swam in Belgrade. Everyone really stepped it up today after a long week and we destroyed the Irish record. Our finishing time is a testament to how hard we all worked in the pool today."

The final individual swims for Ireland at the championships today were Grainne Murphy and Nuala Murphy in the women's 400m individual medley, The Murphy girls, who are not related, finished in 4.43.20 and 4.52.12 respectively.

The World Championships comes to a close later today. The eight-day competition has undoubtedly been the most successful World Championships for Irish Swimming ever. A total of 25 Irish National records were established, with 16 out of the 45 Irish races ranking within the top 25 in the world. The highest ranked Irish swimmer coming out of the meet was Barry Murphy, who qualified for the semi-final of the 50m breaststroke.

Reflecting on the Irish performances over the past week, Peter Banks, Swim Ireland National Performance Director said "We've had tremendous performances from the whole Irish squad this week. I'm really encouraged too that we've moved up in the World rankings and this looks really good for us as we prepare over the next 3 years in our build up towards the 2012 Olympic Games. We've been supported very strongly by the Irish Sports Council which has really helped our swimmers be in the best possible position to deliver outstanding world class performances in the pool."

Issued on behalf of Swim Ireland, whose High Performance Programme is supported and funded by the Irish Sports Council.