IRISH TRIO JAMES Scully, Nicole Turner and Ailbhe Kelly carried the hopes of the host nation on the first night of finals at the Allianz European Para Swimming Championships in Dublin.
Scully set a season’s best in the heats of the 200m freestyle S5 this morning in a time of 2:58.60.
The 25-year-old then shaved another few tenths of a second off that time in the final, touching in 2:58.34 — his best time since the Rio Olympics two years ago.
However, it was only good enough for fifth place as Italy’s Francesco Bocciardo broke his own world record to take gold in 2:23.65.
Turner also missed out on the podium in a sensational final of the 50m freestyle where only one-hundredth of a second separated gold from silver.
Yelyzaveta Mereshko pipped her Ukrainian team-mate Viktoriia Savtsova to the top prize, and broke Savtsova’s world record in the process, winning in a time of 32.78.
Turner, who swam 36.07 in this morning’s heats to qualify, couldn’t quite match that effort and finished sixth in 36.52.
In the 200m individual medley SM8, Kelly took nine seconds off her personal best in this morning’s heats with a time of 3:15.97. That was enough to see her through as the fastest reserve to a place in tonight’s final where she finished seventh in 3:16.82.
Italy’s Xenia Palazzo was a comfortable winner, taking gold by over five seconds in a time of 2:48.98.
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