Bronze for Melanie Nocher at European Short Course Swimming Championships
On the final day of competition at the 2011 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Szczecin, Poland, Ireland's Melanie Nocher has won Ireland's first medal of these championships, winning bronze in the final of the 200m Backstroke. Her time of 2:04.29 also set a new Irish Senior Record for the Ards swimmer.
Ranked third heading into the morning heats, Nocher produced a great performance to set a new Irish Senior Record time of 2:05.00, the second best heat time - leaving her in lane 5 for the final. In that final, she swan a balanced race and was just beaten to the wall by winner, Ukranian Daryna Zevina, who set a new championship record time of 2:02.25, with silver going to Spanish swimmer Duane Da Rocha Marce (2:03.32).
Performance Director Peter Banks hailed Nocher's achievement. "This is a great performance by Melanie, and is a culmination of many months of hard work in training. It also acts as the perfect springboard as she strives for Olympic qualification in the coming months."
Five other Irish swimmers also posted new personal best times in the pool today. Nicholas Quinn (2:15.62) and Dan Sweeney (2:16.25) in the 200m Breaststroke; Bethany Carson in the 200m Freestyle (1:59.07); Jane Roberts in the 200m Backstroke (2:14.51) and Shani Stallard in the 400m Individual Medley (4:53.52), marking a very successful campaign for this Irish team, with 6 Irish Senior Records, 1 Irish Junior Record and 24 Personal Best times from the 10 strong squad.
Grainne Murphy finished 13th today in the women's 400m Individual Medley event, with a time of 4:43.28. Next on the competition calendar for the Wexford swimmer is the "Duel in the Pool" invitational meet, where she will compete for the European All-Star Team as they take on Team USA over two days in Atlanta, Georgia next weekend. This is a great honour for Murphy and her coach Ronald Claes, joining athletes from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Denmark and more as they take on an American team featuring Olympic gold medalists Ryan Lochte, Natalie Coughlin, Rebecca Soni, Brendan Hansen, Dana Vollmer and Amanda Beard.
The Irish SC National Championships also takes place next weekend at the Lagan Valley LeisurePlex in Lisburn. Many of Ireland's top swimmers will be competing for national honours, including Barry Murphy and Sycerika McMahon. The competition begins next Friday (16th December) and will run for 3 days.