Cooney positive in defeat

SWIMMING:AFTER TWO days in Beijing it already feels as if Olympic reporting has been turned into an Olympic event, an exhausting, head-spinning endurance test that no amount of training can prepare you for. In a city of 17 million people with an area roughly the size of Munster, there is no easy way to get around.

This was unavoidable with so many of the Irish competitors in action over the weekend. The Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium, to the southeast of the city, is the badminton venue, while Beijing Shooting Range is to the northwest - which is a bit like heading from east Cork across to west Clare, albeit it on an eight-lane highway.

The Beijing Workers' Indoor Arena, the boxing venue, is to the west, the Shunyi Rowing Park to the north, and the cycling road race finish is further north up by the Great Wall. Given the massive scale of the main Olympic Park, it's still a bit of a hike from the main press centre to the Aquatics Centre, where Aisling Cooney concluded our interest yesterday evening in the heats of the 100 metres backstroke.

Although she finished seventh, well short of qualification, Cooney was hugely positive about her experience. The 18-year-old from Dublin wasn't out of her depth, and is an excellent prospect. Swimming in lane one, Cooney was in joint second at the turn, in 30 seconds dead, before tiring in the final 50 metres to finish in 1:02.50, just 0.25 of a second off her personal best. Victory went to Canada's Julia Wilkinson in 1:00.38.

"That was a great experience, and I have to be pleased enough," she said. "I might have gone off a bit too quick, but that's something you'll learn from. I was nervous too, but think I handled that quite well."

Andrew Bree will return to the Aquatics Centre tomorrow for his specialist event, the 200 metres breaststroke, where he'll start the fourth fastest of eight in his heat. As a tune-up, he swam the 100 metres breaststroke on Saturday, and although he improved his Irish record to 1:01.76 seconds, he too was well outside qualification and ended up ranked 30th of the 63 entrants.

"My finish was a little ugly," he said, "and I could have shaved a few hundredths more off the time but I'm pretty pleased. Obviously the bulk of my work isn't geared towards the 100 metres and on Tuesday I'll probably go out in 1:02 and feel pretty comfortable."

Another short hike from the Aquatics Centre is the purpose-built Fencing Centre, and where Siobhan Byrne was the first in action early on Saturday. Unfortunately, Byrne's Olympic experience lasted only a couple of minutes, as she lost in the first round sabre to Irena Wieckowska of Poland, who outscored her 15-8. It was a tough defeat for the 23-year-old, and it took her a while to come to terms with it.

"I just didn't get into the bout from the beginning," said Byrne. "She was very awkward to fence, wasn't really moving and I found it hard to get into a rhythm. I found myself 8-1 down but after the break I began to get into the bout but it's hard to psychologically fight back like that."

Also on Saturday, over in the badminton venue, Scott Evans got locked into a superb contest with Germany's Marc Zwiebler, before losing out in the final set. The 50-minute contest brought the best of the 20-year-old Dubliner, Ireland's first male badminton representative, who came from one set down to a match-winning position in the final set, only to lose that 21-19. "I played okay but I'm obviously devastated with the loss," he said. "I just had a few chances and I didn't take them. I was just a little bit nervous."