Irish Confidence High Ahead of 2011 European Junior Swimming Championships
The 38th European Junior Swimming Championships commences tomorrow (Wednesday) in Belgrade, Serbia. Ireland has sent a strong team to the event, with eight swimmers competing over the five days of competition at the Tasmajdan Swimming Complex.
The Championships are the premier swimming event for Junior European Swimmers, open to male athletes born 1993/1994 (17/18 years) and female athletes born 1995/1996 (15/16 years). This year's event will feature a total of 1,463 athletes competing in a total of 40 swimming events, making it one of the largest sporting events taking place in Europe this year.
Leander swimmer Sycerika McMahon, will hope to continue her success at these Championships following her bronze medal win in the Women's 400m Freestyle event at the 2010 version of these Championships held in Helsinki, Finland.
McMahon will compete this year in eight events, and is ranked inside the Top-5 in than six of these events. She is currently ranked Number 1 going into both the 200m Freestyle and 400m Freestyle and 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke. The first day will see McMahon take to the blocks in the heats of the 50m Breaststroke, 400m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly events.
Another highlight on Day One will be the heats of the Men's 200m Breaststroke, which features four Irish swimmers. Peter Clarke (Limerick SC & HPC-UL) is ranked best of the Irish in (15th), with Dan Sweeny (Sunday's Well SC), Nicholas Quinn (Castlebar SC) and Philip Duffy (St Paul's SC) all also in with a shot of making the semi-finals.
Other Irish Swimmers in action tomorrow include Jane Roberts (Kilkenny SC) in the heats of the 200m Backstroke and Aer Lingus swimmer Conor Turner in the 400m Freestyle. Luke Campbell (Bangor SC) begins his competition on Thursday in the Men's 100m Freestyle.
Heats begin at 08.00hrs (Irish time) and semi-finals/finals start at 16:00hrs on each day of competition. Full results for Irish swimmers will be issued by Swim Ireland on each day.