Swim Ireland now have four swimmers qualified for this summer's European Championships in Glasgow after today's second set of finals at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
Yesterday Darragh Greene and Mona McSharry were the first two to qualify and this morning Shane Ryan and Conor Ferguson joined them.
Ryan became the first Irish swimmer under 49 seconds for the blue riband, the Men’s 100 freestyle, smashing the record in the heats in a blistering 48.68s, the fastest time ever seen for the event in an Irish pool.
The 24-year-old, who is now based at Auburn University, having moved from Penn State, won the gold in the final in 49.04s, shaking his head in disappointment as he hit the finish pad.
But he was more than happy with his heat qualifying time
Conor Ferguson was actually competing for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games when he made the qualifying time, making the Men’s 100 metres Backstroke final in fourth place in Australia in 54.48s .
That time is also under European Championship consideration.
The final will be on Friday at 12.36pm (Irish time).
Darragh Greene added the 200m Breaststroke title to his 100m win yesterday in a fast 2:10.53 but there was disappointment for second placed Nicholas Quinn, the Rio Olympian, who took silver but outside the qualifying time for the summer European’s.
McSharry finished a distant third to England’s Georgia Coates in the final of the Women’s 200 Breaststroke, as 14-year-old Orla Adam came through from lane two to snatch the silver.
In other events, USA swimmer Claire Tuggle, a Toyko Olympic 2020 medal prospect, won her second title medal of the week in taking the Women’s 800 freestyle (8:37.27), to add to her 400 freestyle win on Wednesday.
