Swimming:US-based swimmer Barry Murphy broke three Irish records on the first day of the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Croatia today.
Murphy broke his own 50m freestyle record in the heats with a time of 21.71 and later shaved almost two tenths of a second of that with a time of 21.53 to qualify for the final in eighth position.
In the end Murphy could not improve on that position in the final after clocking 21.62 to finish in last place behind French swimmer Amaury Levaaux, who had earlier set a new world record of 20.63 in the semi-finals.
Murphy's third Irish record of the day came in the heats of the Men's 100m breastroke where he finished in a time of 59.51.
Belfast swimmer Conor Leaney set a new Irish junior record of 23.00 in the heats of the 50m freestyle.
It was close encounter for Ireland's top backstrokers in the Women's 100m where Olympians Aisling Cooney and Melanie Nocher raced in back to back heats.
Cooney was first up, clocking a time of 1.00.54 and recording a new senior record in the process. One heat later Nocher lowered that to 1.00.42.
Cooney powered her way to a new personal best time of 1.00.42 in the semi-final, equalling the mark that Nocher had established in the heats. Neither swimmer qualified for the finals.
Grainne Murphy and Bethany Carson were also in action in the heats of the Women's 200m Individual Medley, with Murphy claiming a new Irish junior record of 2.17.00.