Irish Women Ready for Relay Test

Sycerika McMahon, who made Olympic qualification at the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, was yesterday swimming in the final of the women's 100m Breaststroke final, but 17 year old McMahon was unable to better her time of 1:08.37 set yesterday and finished fifth overall in a time of 1:08.72. Germany's Sarah Powe took gold in 1:07.33.

Dubliner Karl Burdis was in action in the 50m Backcrawl heats this morning, he finished 15th overall in 25.87, a time good enough to see him through to the semi-final this afternoon. Burdis, who swims with the NAC High Performance Centre and Portmarnock SC bettered this time in his semi-final swim with a time of 25.78, but did not make the finals cut.

Melanie Nocher was also back in the pool again today, this time in the 100m Backstroke, following her Olympic qualification yesterday, she failed to progress to the semi-final of the event finishing in 1:03.42, outside of her personal best.

It's another big day for the Irish tomorrow as the Women's 4x200m Freestyle relay team aim for Olympic qualification. The women's team of Sycerika McMahon, Melanie Nocher, Nuala Murphy and Bethany Carson will need to post a time which will rank them inside the World's top 16. The Ukranian team are currently ranked 16th with a time of 8:06.42, the Irish Record is 8:07.66 set at the 2011 World Championships.

Also in action today, Fiona Doyle and Shani Stallard will swim the heats of the 200m Breaststroke, while Irish Senior Record holder Bethany Carson will swim the 100m Butterfly.