Irish Swim Team Departs for Pre-World Championships Training Camp

The Irish Senior Swimming Squad will depart for Malaysia this Saturday (9th July) for a 10 day training camp in advance of the FINA World Swimming Championships, taking place in Shanghai from 16 to 31 July. There they will prepare for the Championships along with their coaching and support team including High Performance Director Peter Banks.

The World Championships represent the pinnacle of the year for high performance swimmers with Irish team members involved in Open Water swimming (20 & 22 July) and pool swimming (24 to 31 July). The event also represents an opportunity for early qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Irish team is comprised of six swimmers; Barry Murphy (Aer Lingus SC), who trains full time with Club Wolverine in Michigan, USA; Grلinne Murphy (New Ross and Limerick High Performance Centre), who will look to repeat her success at the 2010 European Championships; 2008 Olympian Melanie Nocher (Ards SC), who is based at Loughborough University; and relay swimmers Clare Dawson (Bangor SC) and Sycerika McMahon (Leander SC).

Chris Bryan (Ennis and SI's High Performance Centre, Limerick) will compete in the 5k and 10k Open Water events. Bryan is the first ever Irish swimmer to compete in Open Water at a World Championships, having achieved qualification for Shanghai by completing earlier this year at the European Open Water Swimming Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

Swim Ireland's expectations at this meet are for one top-8 performance, two top-16 performances and three top-24 performances, as well as the achievement of FINA Olympic 'A' standards by two Irish swimmers at the meet.

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