Bryan misses out on Olympic Spot
Ireland's Chris Bryan came agonisingly close to Olympic qualification today at the FINA Open Water 10K Marathon in Setubal, Portugal. The Ennis swimmer finished in 15th position overall in 1:46:30.7 behind Hungarian Csaba Gercsak who also touched in 1:46:30.7. However, the Hungarian was placed ahead of Bryan in 14th place by a photo finish and was allocated the final European spot for the Olympic Games based on this ranking.
The top nine finishers in the race were given automatic qualification to the London Games, one place was then allocated to Great Britain as the host Nation. The final five spots were allocated to one per continent which were Asia (10th) , South America (11th) , Europe (14th), Australasia (27th) and Africa (36th). Ten swimmers had already qualified for the Games at the World Championships in 2011.
Bryan put in a valiant effort throughout the race and moved from 29th position at the start of the last lap and into the top 15 of 61 swimmers. The race was won by Italy's Valerio Cleri in 1:45:36.8.
Ireland have four swimmers qualified for the Olympic Games, Barry and Grainne Murphy, Sycerika McMahon and Melanie Nocher.