SHANE RYAN COMPLETED a memorable day for Irish sport as he produced a strong performance to claim 50 metre backstroke bronze at the European Swimming Championships in Glasgow on Saturday evening.
Ryan, the 2016 Rio Olympian, had powered through the heats and semi-finals earlier in the week and continued his good form in the pool earlier, clocking a time of 24.64 to finish on the podium.
It is his second senior medal having won gold in the 50m backstroke at the 2017 University Games.
“Everyone loves a medal and we thought that Shane’s 50m Backstroke was our best chance of one before the meet started,” Swim Ireland national performance director, Jon Rudd, said.
“That’s not to say more aren’t possible but we’re keeping our focus on the controllables – lifetime best performances here in Glasgow – and if they continue to happen, then we’ll continue to get second swims in semi-finals and finals.”
Russian Kliment Kolesnikov won the gold medal as he set a new world record, to finish ahead of Romania’s Robert-Andrei Glinta, who secured the silver medal with a time of 24.55.
Meanwhile, Brendan Hyland set a new Irish record as he competed in the first of the 200m butterfly semi-finals.
Hyland had swam his best morning time ever in the heats, then went on to take two tenths of a second off his Irish record of 1:57.44, set at the Irish Open in April, in the semi-final to finish 10th overall in 1:57.28.
In the 100m breaststroke semi-final, Mona McSharry moved up to 14th overall.
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