Swimming:Derry swimmer Ryan Harrison failed in his bid to make the final of the 200 metres freestyle at the European Championships in Budapest this evening.
The 21-year-old improved on his heat time of 1:49.80 to touch the wall in 1:49.04, his second fastest, but it was only good enough for joint 10th amongst the 16 competitors as he recorded the same time as Britain’s Ross Davenport. Harrison will be second alternate for tomorrow’s final.
Swimming in the slower of the two semi-finals, Harrison came hole in sixth spot after earlier qualifying in 11th position after the morning heats, where he came fourth.
“It felt a lot better than this morning’s swim; it went a lot smoother, I was a lot smarter, my stroke felt great and I’m pumped to go almost a second faster than this morning,” said Harrison after the race.
“I definitely didn’t have any more left in the tank but there’s obviously bits and pieces of the swim that I could have tightened up on — my finish might have been a bit better.”
Harrison’s final event at the championships is the 100m freestyle on Thursday morning.
Clare Dawson finished her heat of the 100m freestyle in 57.72, just over a second off her best time. The Bangor swimmer is confident the race will stand her in good stead ahead of her main event, the 200m freestyle on Friday.
“I’m a bit disappointed, but it was my first swim of the meet and it’s good to get in and get used to the pool, get used to the new suit and prepare for the 200m. I think my 100 has suffered a little bit due to a lot of the work I’ve been doing on pace for the 200m, so we’ll see what happens on Friday,” reflected the 22 year-old.
Andrew Bree withdrew from the 200m Individual Medley heats to concentrate on his priority event, the 200m breaststroke which takes place tomorrow morning.
Grainne Murphy scratched from the 200m Individual Medley tomorrow for the same reason — to focus on her 800m freestyle event.
Melanie Nocher is up in the 100m backstroke, while Andrew Bree is in the pool for his main event, the 200m breaststroke.