Donal O’Neill and Aisling Cooney both narrowly missed out in qualifying for the semi-finals of their respective events at the LEN Short Course European Swimming Championships in Istanbul.
29-year-old O’Neill recorded his third individual Irish record of the week swimming in the100m backstroke heats and finishing in 52.98secs - an impressive 0.45sec quicker than the previous mark that he set four weeks ago at the Berlin World Cup.
O’Neill, who has recently come out of a four-year retirement, was five places away from qualifying for Saturday night’s semi-final.
Cooney clocked 28.27secs – a new Irish record time – in the 50m backstroke heats. The Dubliner’s finishing time left her three places shy of the time needed to qualify for the semi-final.
Speaking after Saturday’s results in Istanbul, Swim Ireland’s National Performance Director Peter Banks commented: ‘Another good day of swimming and three new Irish records.
‘We’re moving in the right direction but we’re not quite there yet. We were so close to making the semi-finals with Donal and Aisling but we are going to look ahead, where we've got the final day of competition and everyone is competing.’
Other swimmers in action on Saturday were Grainne Murphy, Nuala Murphy and Niamh O’Sullivan in the 400m freestyle.
Murphy’s time of 4.12.97 lowered Sycerika McMahon’s previous Irish Junior record, while Ards man Michael Dawson featured in the Men’s 50m breaststroke, finishing in 28.40secs.
