CUSAI World University Games Tuesday Round Up
Furlong Makes Hurdles Final and More Records Smashed in the Pool
Tuesday saw the start of the athletics for Ireland in the World University Games in Belgrade with Brona Furlong on the track advancing to the final of the 400m hurdles, and Karl Burdis smashing more records in swimming.
Swimming -
Burdis showed his impressive form of late breaking the Irish national record in the 50m backstroke twice in the one day. In the morning heat he swam 25.71 seconds only to better this in the evening semi-final swimming 25.53 seconds. He narrowly missed out on a spot in the final by .02 of a second. This outstanding result adds to the 100m backstroke record which Burdis broke three times in 48 hours over Sunday and Monday. The University of Minnesota-based swimmer is on a phenomenal run of late and will be hoping to carry that form through to the 200m backstroke heats on Thursday. Elsewhere in the pool, Melanie Nocher swam in the semi-final of the 100m backstroke. In her heats Melanie finished with a time of 1:03.26 minutes. She bettered this by .21 of a second in the semi but it wasn't enough to secure her place in the final, as she finished in 12th overall. And in the 800m freestyle, Nuala Murphy narrowly missed out on qualification finishing 9th overall after swimming 4:21.85 minutes.
Athletics -
In the 400m hurdles, Brona Furlong ran a personal best of 57.87 seconds to qualify for Thursday's final. The runner from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, finished third in her heat and 8th overall to get through to the decider. In the 400m, Irish duo Claire Bergin and Fiona O'Friel qualified as fastest runners-up to make it through to tomorrow's semi-final. Both athletes finished fourth in their heats with Bergin running 55.11 seconds and O'Friel finishing in 55.78 seconds.
Tennis -
On the clay courts of the Milan Gale Muskatirovik Sports Centre, all tennis hopes were dashed with the only remaining Irish competitor left in the tournament beaten in the third round. Dara McLoughlin lost in straight sets 1-6, 3-6 to second seed Artem Smirnov. The Ukrainian proved just too strong for the student of Indiana University, as McLoughlin struggled to find his form against one of the competition favourites.
Football: Ireland's women are out of the main competition in the Games but faced Poland today in a second round battle for rankings places. They suffered a narrow one goal defeat in a closely contested contest against a solid Poland side. The first half was evenly balanced with both first half goals coming in the space of two minutes. The polish team managed to break the Irish defence on 31 minutes when a slip pass was met by Paulina Katazyna who beat Tiarna Mc Kenna in the Irish goal. The Irish responded immediately from the tip off when a shot from Rachael Furness from outside the box was spilled by the Polish goal-keeper and Zoe Doherty reacted quickest to apply the finish.
In a game which was played in intense heat and humidity, fatigue began to set in the second half and a momentary lapse in the Irish defence allowed the Polish winger inside the Irish cover. The ball was squared to Anna Zelazko who put the Poles in front once more. Ireland did fashion late chances which may on another day have earned them a result. Rachael Furness, Sarah Mc Grath and Rachael Jenkins were all heavily involved but the best chance of an equaliser came right at the death on 93 minutes when Mary Waldron's rebounded effort flew over the bar after a shot from the edge of the six yard box.
Ireland's women now face South Africa in their next game. In men's football, Kieran Harding's side lost 1-0 to Canada in their second round fixture.
Wednesday Preview: Looking ahead to Wednesday's events, Ireland have two Olympians in action in track and field with Eileen O'Keefe in the hammer throw, and Fionnuala Britton in the 3,000m steeplechase. As well as the two athletes in the 400m semi-finals, Tom Carey will be running the 400m men's hurdles.Andrew Meegan, Barry Murphy and Ryan Harrison are also in the pool in the morning.