Rio Olympics-bound Fiona Doyle is safely through to this evening's semi-finals of the 100 metres breaststroke on day two of the European Swimming Championships in London.
Doyle recorded a time of one minute 8.79 seconds to reach the last 16 in 12th place overall, in an event which also included fellow Irish competitors Mona McSharry and Sycerika McMahon.
“This is really just race prep for the Olympics, so I’m trying to nail every detail that I can,” Doyle said after her race.
"I was more nervous than I expected to be up on the blocks but it was a solid swim, my best swim of the year so far. I’m hoping to be much better in the semi-final and I think that there is definitely more to come”
Fifteen-year-old McSharry went out fast in the heat in her senior international debut and turned second, but couldn’t sustain the pace down the last 50 and finished eighth.
McMahon used the 100m breaststroke to tune up for her main event, the 200m individual medley heats, which are on Wednesday but she tailed off in the heat, finishing last in 1:11.18.
McMahon, who is currently based at Texas A&M, has Olympic ambitions, but was not happy with her swim and refused to speak to reporters after the heats.
Bangor’s Jordan Sloan was unlucky not to get a second swim in the 200m freestyle as he was placed 18th overall, with his lifetime best time of 1:49.01 just 0.13 shy of making the semi-finals.
Shane Ryan, the former US National squad member, will contest the final of the 100m backstroke this evening.
The 22-year-old just snuck into today’s decider in eighth place after last night’s semi-final, denying Poland’s Tomas Polewka a place in the last eight by 0.26.
“I tried to swim the semi-final in a different manner to the heats, but it didn’t work,” said Ryan.
“The other swimmers in the race stepped it up and I will have to go away now and think about my strategy for the final, maybe I will have to swim the first 50 metres hard and try to hold on over the second half of the race”
If Ryan is to win a medal, he will have to do it from lane eight, with Greece’s Apostolos Christou the fastest qualifier ahead of the Russian Grigory Tatasevich and Italian Simone Sabbioni.
