Fiona Doyle felt the agony of a fourth-place finish when she was just pipped for a medal in the women’s 100 metre breaststroke final at the European Swimming Championships in London.
The Limerick swimmer was beaten to the bronze by Britain’s Chloe Tutton by 0.26 of a second after a storming last 50 from the outside lane.
Turning in fifth at the half-way mark in the final, the 24-year-old University of Calgary swimmer was involved in a blanket finish for the third place, but it was Tutton who got the touch, a quarter of a second faster to leave Doyle in the unwanted fourth in 1.07.76
The gold medal went to the Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte while Hrafnhilde Luttersdottir of Iceland took silver.
"I came into these games unsure of what I was going to do and to be honest I didn’t think I’d swim this fast, to get that time I’m really happy with, but getting fourth place I’m disappointed," said Doyle afterwards.
"I have big goals for the Olympics so this is good prep, I’m becoming more confident in my swimming abilities and racing at a higher level, so as disappointed as I am, this is still a fantastic place to be."
Doyle is back in the pool on Thursday, as she and Mona McSharry compete in the heats of the 200 metres breaststroke.
Shane Ryan broke the Irish record in the heats of the 50 metres backstroke in 25.19 seconds, but couldn’t repeat that in the semi-finals and was classified 11th overall in 25.32 seconds
Ryan, Curtis Coulter and Jordan Sloan are in action in the meets Blue Riband, the 100 metres freestyle tomorrow.
It wasn’t a great start to the day for 21-year-old Sycerika McMahon who had hoped to make an Olympic qualifying time in her top event, the 200 metres individual medley.
The Texas A&M based swimmer, was classified a lowly 28th after the heats in a time of 2.17.52 seconds and was extremely disappointed with her swim which was well outside the Olympic qualifying time of 2.14.26.
Brendan Hyland too was disappointed with his effort in his top event, the 200 metres butterfly, swimming a relatively show 2.00.21 and that was outside a top-16 semi-final berth.
Rio bound Nicholas Quinn & Dan Sweeney both failed to advance after the heats of the 200 metres breaststroke while Danielle Hill, who is doing GCSE exams in London as well as competing in London, didn’t make it out of the 100 metre backstroke heats.
