Ireland's 400m Medley Relay Team put in an impressive performance in Sunday evening's final at the European Championships as they took almost a second off the Irish record they had set in the morning heats.
Olympic Games qualifiers Shane Ryan and Nicholas Quinn, with Brendan Hyland and Curtis Coulter, had clocked 3:38.40 in the morning heats to progress in seventh place at the London Aquatics Centre.
Faster performances from all four in the final saw them break that record in 3 minutes 37.48 seconds to claim seventh in the final.
Ryan led of the relay on backstroke, touching in 54.37 seconds; Quinn was close to his best on the breaststroke leg in 1:01.01; Hyland clocked 53.35 on the butterfly while Coulter, on freestyle, swam a speedy 48.74 to anchor home.
In total across diving and swimming, Ireland has enjoyed one of its best European Championships in recent years, competing in four finals and six semi-finals, with Fiona Doyle just missing out on a medal in the 100m breaststroke where she touched in fourth.
“What a great team effort from the whole squad," Swim Ireland National Performance Director Peter Banks said.
"Although we did not get any more qualifiers for Rio, the squad led by Fiona Doyle, Shane Ryan and Nicholas Quinn as future Olympians showed great leadership in making semis and finals along with a great 4x100m Medley Relay.
"We featured in every evening finals session and the athletes that are part of this squad will all be part of some great future Irish teams. The future looks really bright for the next four years and beyond”
Ryan, Quinn and Doyle now travel to a training camp in Barcelona, before competing at the Mare Nostrum swim meet on 11/12 June.
On the same weekend Chris Bryan will attempt to qualify for the Games in the 10K Open Water Olympic qualifier at Setubal in Portugal.
