Updated: 18.30
IRELAND’S FIONA DOYLE and Barry Murphy both finished 15th overall following the first night of finals action at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Denmark.
Doyle, competing in the 50m breaststroke was eighth in her heat in a time of 30.97, just off her time of 30.80 from this morning’s heats. World record holder Yuliya Efimova of Russia went on to win gold in a championship record time of 29.04.
Doyle will feature in the heats of the 200m breaststroke tomorrow morning.
It was also a creditable display from Barry Murphy in the 100m breaststroke; he touched in 58.79 to finish eighth in the first semi-final. More importantly though for Murphy, he swam a 50m split of 27.06 tonight, the fastest 50m time of all 20 competitors, putting him a good position for the 50m Breaststroke event on Saturday in which he is currently ranked third.
“Overall we had a good day,” said Swim Ireland National Performance Director Peter Banks, “there was some great swims from Barry (Murphy) and Fiona (Doyle) especially. I know they are disappointed not to make finals but the performances bode well for the rest of the week.”
Brendan Hyland, Shani Stallard and Bethany Carson are all back in the pool tomorrow for day two of the competition while Barry Murphy and Andrew Meegan will have a rest day before returning to race on Saturday.
