Kelly makes European Junior Final

Action got underway today at 2012 European Junior Swimming Championships, taking place in Antwerp, Belgium. With Ireland sending its largest team in recent times to the event, it was a busy morning in the pool for the swimmers.

 
Sarah Kelly, from Coman's SC in Roscommon, has qualified for tomorrow's final in the 200m Butterfly, her best event, her time of 2:17.54 was a new personal best and qualified her in 8th place for tomorrow's final. She had also set a new personal best in this morning's heats of 2:17.69 where she finished 7th overall. Tallaght's Clodagh Flood was also in action in the girls 200m Butterfly semi-final, Flood had a personal best in this morning's heats finishing in 2:19.36 but was unable to improve this time in the semi-final finishing 16th overall in 2:20.31. Both girls are back in action tomorrow in the 400m Freestyle heats.

The Irish boy's did themselves proud when combining for the 4x100m Freestyle Relay event. In a tough field, the quartet of Curtis Coulter; Brian O'Sullivan; Brian O'Sullivan and David Prendergast finished in 9th place, one place behind Great Britain, missing out on a place in the evenings final. However, their time of 3:27.33 set a new Irish Junior Record by a massive 12 seconds, which bodes well for the other relay events later on this week.

In a busy morning schedule, other highlights included the Boy's 50m Butterfly, in which all three Irish swimmers competing set new personal best times (Curtis Coulter 25.40; Brendan Hyland 25.63; David O'Sullivan 26.13). Cian Duffy of Galway SC also set a new personal best (59.97) in the 100m Backstroke. NAC swimmer Brian O'Sullivan, who was a medal winner at last year's European Youth Olympic Festival, also swam a best time of 58.21 in the 100m Backstroke.

Action continues tomorrow (Thursday), with twelve of the team in action across five different events.