Murphy sets sights on Olympics place

By John Kenny

Grainne Murphy will be hoping to make the Olympic qualifying A standard in the women’s 800 metres Freestyle at the Dutch National Swimming Championships in Eindhoven this afternoon.

The teenager will only have one attempt at going below 8:33.84, the current time required, as the 800 Freestyle in Eindhoven is a heat-declared event.

She will swim in the fastest heat in the finals session this afternoon and it will include the fastest qualifier, Denmark’s Lotte Friis, who beat Murphy to the gold medal in the women’s 1500 metres freestyle at the European Championships in Budapest last year.

Barry Murphy, who is in action at the US Nationals in Atlanta, is the only Irish swimmer to have so far dipped under an Olympic qualifying time (100 metres Breaststroke).

He has complained of feeling unwell in Georgia and pulled out of yesterday’s heats of the 100metres in the US.

Shani Stallard made the final of the women’s 200 Breaststroke in seventh place overall in 2:32.40 at the Pieter Van Den Hoogenband complex.

Melanie Nocher, who took a bronze medal last night in the 200 metres Backstroke in Eindhoven, but missed out on Olympic qualification, made the B final of the women’s 200 Freestyle this morning in 2:01.60.

Aisling Cooney is through to the B final of the 50 metres backstroke (30.06 seconds), while Karl Burdis made the men’s 50 back B final in a time of 26.10 secs.

Meanwhile in the US, Andrew Bree will compete in his top event, the men’s 200 Breastroke at their winter nationals meet in Georgia.