SWIMMING Irish Records For Murphy and Leaney

Two more Irish records fell for Ireland on day 6 of the World Swimming Championships in Rome. In the men's 50m freestyle, Dubliner Barry Murphy clocked 22.14, a new Irish Senior record while Larne star Conor Leaney improved on his Irish Junior mark to finish in 23.49. Unfortunately Murphy, who finished in 19th place after the heats, missed out on a place in tonight's semi-final by 3 spots and just one tenth of a second. Leaney had a busy day, also going in the men's 100m butterfly, finishing in 56.39.


Nuala Murphy and Grainne Murphy were in action in the women's 800m freestyle. Both girls, training partners at the Swim Ireland High Performance Centre in Limerick, had solid swims; Nuala recording a personal best time of 8.39.17 and Grainne finishing in 8.40.23 - 4 seconds outside her best and Irish Senior record time (8.36.63) which she achieved three weeks ago when she won gold in the event at the European Junior Championships in Prague.


Beijing Olympian Melanie Nocher posted a time of 2.13.04 in the women's 200m backstroke, winning her heat. Nocher had a 1.04.83 at the half way 100m mark - an impressive assault at bettering her time however did not manage to improve on her personal best.


"My finishing time is only 0.90 [seconds] off my best ever so I look at that race positively. My first 100m felt really strong and perhaps I was a little weaker today than usual and didn't bring it back fast enough," said Nocher after the race.


Irish swimmers in action tomorrow are Fiona Doyle and Clare Dawson (50m freestyle), Karl Burdis and Donal O'Neill (50m backstroke) and the Irish Women's 4x100m medley relay (Aisling Cooney, Fiona Doyle, Grainne Murphy, Clare Dawson).


There will be no further correspondence today. The next correspondence will be tomorrow lunchtime.


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