Swimming: When Andrew Bree became the first Irish swimmer to book his place at next year's Beijing Olympics yesterday, he was obviously in the mood to kick-on for he not only finished third in the 200metres breaststroke final at the US National Championships but reduced his Irish record twice in one day.
First-off the Helen's Bay swimmer qualified for Beijing with a time of 2 minutes 13.44 seconds to be the fourth fastest qualifier in the heats, but more importantly, he was inside the Olympic qualifying "A" time set by the Irish selectors.
In the Indianapolis final Bree was up against stiff opposition but swam a great race to claim third behind Brendan Hansen (2:09.91) and Eric Shanteau (2:10.65). Hansen is the current record holder.
Bree's time of 2:13.15 reduced the Irish record he had set earlier in the day by 0.29seconds.
Having narrowly missed out on a place on the Ireland team for the 2004 Games in Athens, Bree can now look ahead to competing at next year's Games.