Leaney qualifies for World Championships

Conor Leaney has qualified for the World Swimming Championships in Rome after he made the qualifying standard at the Irish Long Course Championships in Dublin on Thursday, writes RTÉ’s John Kenny.

The 19-year-old from the City of Belfast club swam the men’s 200m Freestyle in a time of 1 minute 51.05 seconds to take gold at the National Aquatic Centre.

Leaney’s time in the final was half a second under the time required to book his place in Italy this July.

The Belfast native joins nine other Irish swimmers who have already qualified for the Rome event.

Grainne and Nuala Murphy, Niamh O’Sullivan, Donal O’Neill and Aisling Cooney all pre-qualified at the recent Dave McCullough Memorial meet in Limerick.

Olympian Melanie Nocher qualified for the women’s 200 Backstroke at a meet in Sweden, while both Ryan Harrison and Karl Burdis, who are based in the USA, qualified from championships in the United States.

There was a new Irish senior record in the men’s relay when the NUIM Devils 4x100 metre squad demolished the old City of Belfast record by over four seconds.

The quartet of Kevin and Seamus Stacey, Sean Redmond and Conor Hughes destroyed the eight-strong field to take the gold medal in a time of three minutes 29.24 seconds which was 4.43 seconds better than the old time.

Meanwhile, Grainne Murphy, who is based at the High Performance Centre at Limerick, broke the Irish Junior Record twice in the 200m Butterfly.

In the heats she posted a time of 2:17.49 and later in the finals she took an amazing three seconds of this with a time of 2:14.95.

Michael Dawson from Ards Swimming Club broke the Irish Junior Record in the 50m Breaststroke final with a time of 29.14.

Tara Dunne who is based at the High Performance Centre at Limerick achieved the qualification time for the European Junior Championships in Prague this summer in the 200m Freestyle in a time of 2:06.83.