Shane Ryan finished fifth in the final of the 50m backstroke at the European Short Course in Romania.
The 29-year-old threatened to claim a third Irish medal of the championships, touching two hundredths of a second behind the joint bronze medallists.
Ryan's time of 23.12 secured fifth place overall behind France’s Mewen Tomac (22.84), Germany’s Ole Braunschweig and bronze medallists Lorenzo Mora and Thierry Bollin (23.10).
"It’s always difficult when you come into a meet not rested, as you still have expectations and I know what I’m capable of," he said afterwards. "I will keep a strong mind about it and look at the bigger picture as we’re saying here, so on to bigger and better things."
Ryan will be back in action tomorrow in the 100m backstroke heats.
Tom Fannon set a national record in the 50m freestyle, but his semi-final time of 21.21 wasn’t enough to see him through to the final.
The National Centre Dublin swimmer posted a time of 21.35 in the morning heats, and his record time will be some consolation in failing to progress.
The 25-year-old now holds both the short course (25m) and long course (50m) records in the event.
"I’m just happy to break the record, so close to 20 seconds, so now that’s the goal, maybe next year, taper coming into the meet. I’d like to see 20, so just keep chasing that," he said.
After the 50m semi-final, it was confirmed that Fannon will have an opportunity for another swim tomorrow. After a four-way tie for tenth place and the second reserve spot, Fannon will compete against three other swimmers at the end of tomorrow’s heats to see if he can secure tenth outright.
Ellen Walshe, who last night claimed a 400m individual medley bronze medal, was back in semi-final action in the 100m individual medley.
The Templeogue swimmer touched in 1:00.11, bettering her time of 1:00.20 from this morning, to finish in 10th place overall.
In the women’s 200m backstroke semi-final, National Centre Limerick’s Maria Godden swam another best time, improving on the 2:07.10 this morning, to a 2:06.71 for eleventh place overall.
"I’m delighted, that’s just under four seconds personal best in the 200m backstroke just this year so I’m pleased to see all the training and hard work paying off," she said.
Eleven Irish swimmers will be in action tomorrow, with Daniel and Nathan Wiffen already confirmed for the 1500m freestyle final at 5.04pm.
Daniel, who won Ireland's first ever European Short Course gold medal on Monday evening in the 400m freestyle, touched in 14 minutes 34.50 seconds, conserving his energy for the final as the 22-year-old finished well behind his best time of 14:14.45 in the event.
Nathan came home in 14:39.34, knocking a massive nine seconds off his previous best of 14:48.69.
