PARALYMPICS McDonald wins second Silver Medal at Europeans

Ireland's Darragh McDonald achieved an amazing double in the Laugardalur Swimming Complex in Reykjavik, winning European silver for the second time in a week. The amputee swimmer finished in second place in the 100m Freestyle event with a new Irish Record time of 1.10.50, remarkably destroying the record he had set in qualifying this morning by 0.86 of a second.

After his 400m Freestyle silver medal earlier in the week, McDonald flew off the blocks in this mornings heats to set a new Irish record of 1.11.36 to qualify second fastest for the final. The final saw the Irish teenager matched against his old rival from Sweden, Anders Olsson who resisted the Irishman's strong challenge, going on the win the gold.

Speaking after the event, McDonald said, "I couldn't have asked for a better finish to the European championships, it has been a great competition for me and I'm already focusing my preparations toward the world championships August 2010"

Tyrone resident, Stephen Campbell, was Ireland's second finalist tonight in the 100m Butterfly event (S11 Class). The vision impaired athlete produced a superb performance to set a new personal best time of 1.13.50, finishing in 5th position overall. In the mixed zone after the race, overjoyed with his performance Campbell declared, "If you put your mind to it you can really achieve anything you set out to do, that swim has given me a lot of confidence in my ability to compete with the very best athletes"

Ireland's other finalist of the evening, Gina Lourens, was not so fortunate, being disqualified from her 100m Butterfly event (S8 Class) for a technical infringement. Lourens was bitterly disappointed with the result but will be back in the pool tomorrow for the 100m Freestyle event.

Laurence McGivern was also in action today in the heats of the mens 50m Freestyle event (S9 Class). Having started a little high out of the blocks, McGivern finished in 7th position with a time of 29.80 in what was a very competitive qualification round of world class swimmers.

Speaking from the poolside tonight, Head of Paralympic Swimming and former Paralympic medallist, Dave Malone said, "For Darragh, this was a perfect end to a tremendous championships for him, I'm delighted with his progress since Beijing and now have sights firmly set on the world championships next summer. Laurence is a young athlete with great promise and has done exactly what I hoped for at the start of the championships. Stephen was unlucky to miss out on a bronze medal on the last stroke with a very exciting finish, very proud of the efforts of Stephen tonight"

Day 5 of the Championships sees a busy day with yet again, 4 Irish athletes in competition. Stephen Campbell competes in the 100m Backstroke event (S11 Class), Laurence McGivern competes in the 100m Backstroke (S9 Class), Jonathan McGrath swims in the 100m Freestyle event (S8 Class) while Gina Lourens swims in the 100m Freestyle event (S8 Class).

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