Murphy misses out on final berth

Swimming: Ireland's Barry Murphy missed out on a place in the final men’s 50metres breaststroke at the World Championships in…

Swimming:Ireland's Barry Murphy missed out on a place in the final men's 50metres breaststroke at the World Championships in Rome after finishing fifth in this evening's semi-final.

The Dublin swimmer raced in a time of 27.38 seconds in the first semi-final behind winner Felipe Da Silva from Brazil (26.92)

“I know where I made the mistake in that race – my last five metres,” said Murphy after the race.

“I enjoyed the moment though, racing in a World Championships semi-final and I just have to put the 50m behind me now and focus on the 100m freestyle tomorrow.”

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Murphy, 23, earned his place in the semi-final when earlier in the day he set another new national record.

At the open-air pool he clocked a time a quicker time of 27.26 seconds, lowering his Irish record by 0.84 seconds.

Andrew Bree’s personal best (28.66) was not good enough to qualify for the semi-finals as he continues to build up to his main event, the 200 metres breaststroke – the heats get under way on Thursday morning.

Ireland had two other swimmers in the morning's heats but Claire Dawson and Niamh O'Sullivan but both failed to advance to the semi-finals of the women’s 200 metres freestyle.

Irish swimmers in action tomorrow are Aisling Cooney (50m backstroke), Ryan Harrison and Murphy (100m freestyle) and Grainne Murphy (200m butterfly).