Irish fail to qualify from morning heats

Ireland's swimmers failed to advance from their heats despite breaking six Irish records at the LEN Short Course European Swimming Championships in Istanbul this morning.

Three Senior and three Junior National records were broken, but that progress masked the disappointment of not one swimmer advancing to the semi-finals.

Among the record holders was Limerick High Performance Centre swimmer Grainne Murphy who clocked a 2.14.06 in her 200m Individual Medley, finishing in 21st place overall with a new Junior record.

Michael Dawson showed solid form in the 100m breaststroke, splitting a time of 28.37 for the first 50m leg (lowering his own previous Junior record) and then going on to finish in a new personal best and Irish Junior record time of 1.00.96 – knocking over two seconds off Andrew Bree’s previous record mark.

The Men’s 4x50m medley team relay quartet of Donal O’Neill, Michael Dawson, Steven McQuillan and Conor Leaney recorded a time of 1.38.84, shaving two seconds off the previous Senior record which was set in 2003.

O’Neill, who set the pace on the first leg (backstroke) with a new Irish Senior record (24.81) also swam the backstroke leg of the record-breaking relay back in 2003.

Other Irish swims this morning came from Aisling Cooney and Melanie Nocher in the 100m backstroke; the pair finishing in 1.00.35 and 1.00.85 respectively.

Steven McQuillan had a strong performance in the 100m butterfly (54.06, new Irish Senior record). Conor Leaney’s first race of the Championships was the 400m freestyle, in which he finished in 3.55.01.

Clare Dawson (55.24), Niamh O’Sullivan (58.08), Melanie Nocher (55.66) and Aisling Cooney (56.41) raced in the 100m freestyle, completing the individual line-up for the Irish on day one.

Speaking from Istanbul Peter Banks, National Performance Director and Lead Coach for the Championships, commented: 'Today was a good start to the four-day meet; we had good results with six Irish records being set and we’re moving up the rankings.

'Tomorrow and over the next few days though we’ll really be looking to improve on times so that we can qualify for the semi-finals and finals, as that is our ultimate goal.'

Irish swimmers in action on Friday are: Donal O’Neill (50m backstroke), Conor Leaney and Steven McQuillan (100m freestyle), Grainne Murphy and Nuala Murphy (800m freestyle) and the Women’s 4x50m freestyle team relay.