SWIMMING: Irish Swim Team for Short Course Europeans in Top Form

The Irish Swim Team of Conor Leaney, Barry Murphy, Donal O'Neill, Bethany Carson, Aisling Cooney, Clare Dawson, Fiona Doyle, Grainne Murphy, Melanie Nocher and Niamh O'Sullivan departed for the Short Course European Championships in Rijeka, Croatia today following a very successful Leinster Winter Championships at Ireland's National Aquatic Centre this past weekend.

High Performance Limerick star Grainne Murphy broke three Irish records in total over the weekend. Her first came in the final of the 100m Butterfly where she lowered the previous Irish Junior mark to 1.01.97. In the women's 100m Individual Medley Murphy went on to set two more Junior Records; first lowering the mark to 1.04.63 in the heats then further lowering it to 1.04.15 in the final. Grainne's line-up of events for the Europeans includes the 400m & 800m Freestyle and the 200m & 400m Individual Medley.

The Women's 200m Freestyle event was won by Kerry girl Niamh O'Sullivan, who also trains alongside Murphy at the High Performance Centre at the UL Arena. O'Sullivan recorded a time of 1.59.13 - a new personal best. O'Sullivan will compete in this event in Croatia in addition to the 400m & 800m Freestyle. Irish Women's 200m Freestyle Senior Record holder Melanie Nocher will not compete in the 200m Freestyle event at the Europeans but goes in the 100m Freestyle and the 100m & 200m Backstroke.

Donal O'Neill, who competes in the 50m & 100m Backstroke in Croatia had two very impressive performances in both of these events at the NAC (25.6, 54.6) - finishing just marginally outside of his personal best times and Irish Senior Records in both.

Also swimming in top form over the weekend was Dubliner Nuala Murphy. Murphy who now trains with the High Performance Team in Limerick and studies full time at UL put in outstanding performances in the Women's 400m & 800m Freestyle; dipping well inside the qualifying times for the European Championships in both events - however heartbreakingly too late. Murphy won the 800m Freestyle in a time of 8.48.54 and the 400m Freestyle in a time of 4.17.03.

The European Championships runs from Thursday, 11th December to Sunday, 14th December. Daily updates will be provided by Swim Ireland.

For further information contact:
Chantal Gibney, Swim Ireland
Ph: 086 3817933
Email: edo2@swimireland.ie