PARALYMPIC Paralympic Swimmer Ellen Keane Finishes 4th at European Swimming Championships in Iceland

Teenage swimmer from Dublin, Ellen Keane, finished with a well-earned fourth place in the 100m Breaststroke (S9 Class) this evening at the IPC European Swimming Championships in Iceland. Ranked fourth going into tonight's final Keane, who was lying in 5th position with 20m to go, put in a strong final burst to take fourth place in a time of 1.30.80 which was three seconds outside her personal best. Olesya Vladykina of Russia won the race in a world record time of 1.17.60.


This was Keane's second final of the evening, having earlier finished in 8th position in the 200m Individual Medley (SB8 Class) with a time of 2.53.06. Having qualified for tonight's final from this morning's heats with a time of 2.51.88, the field ultimately proved too strong for Keane in what was her third final in two days.


Commenting on tonight's performance, Head of Paralympic Swimming Dave Malone said, "A hard final tonight for Ellen in a very competitive race, Ellen pulled back the 4th position from lying 5th going into the last 20 meters, working a very good finish. It has been a positive swimming championships for Ellen and I am sure she will have learned a lot from the experience and can take that with her as she develops over the next few years"


With her race this evening, Keane's participation in this European Championships comes to an end. Speaking after the event Keane demonstrated a maturity beyond her years stating, "It was great to swim back to back finals tonight and I learned a lot from the experience, I was disappointed not to follow on with another personal best time tonight after yesterdays butterfly, but it was good to swim in the final with a new world record being set in the 100m Breaststroke and sets the standard that I'm looking to chase over the next few years"


Day 3 of competition sees Darragh McDonald back in the pool for the 50m Freestyle event (S6 Class) while Stephen Campbell begins his European campaign in the 400m Freestyle event (S11 Class). Gina Lourens and Jonathan McGrath both start the competition in their respective 400m Freestyle events (S8) Class.


For further information contact Paralympic Council of Ireland Press Officer, John Fulham at mob: 087-2709182 or e-mail: communications@pcireland.ie