by John Kenny
Grainne Murphy is through to yet another final, the women’s 400IM, at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Eindhoven.
Having already won bronze medals this week in the 400m and 800m freestyle, the 17-year-old qualified sixth fastest of the eight finalists, in 4:39.19 seconds.
That’s 2.5 seconds outside Michelle Smith DeBruijn’s 1994 Irish senior record.
Murphy, who is competing in a demanding seven events in Eindhoven, also took part in the 200m freestyle heats, but missed out on a place in the top eight.
Melanie Nocher dropped out of the 200m freestyle heats to fully concentrate on her main event, the 200m backstroke, but an exhausted Nocher, who was fifth in the 400m freestyle final yesterday, faded in the back end of the race and finished 14th with a time of 2:08.79.
Aisling Cooney also swam the 200m backstroke after narrowly missing out on the 50m backstroke final yesterday, but she too missed out on a place in the final, registering a time of 2:12.91.
