Swimming:The United States won the women's 4x200 metres freestyle relay title at the world swimming championships this morning where the Irish team set a new national record but failed to advance from their heat.
The USA quartet of Melissa Franklin, Dagny Knutson, Katie Hoff and Allison Schmitt clocked seven minutes, 46.14 seconds to claim gold ahead of Australia who took silver in 7:47.42, while China won bronze in 7:47.66.
Earlier, the Irish team of Sycerika McMahon, Melanie Nocher, Clare Dawson and Gráinne Murphy lowered the Irish record to 8:07.66 - an improvement of just under two seconds from the previous mark.
“We were a little bit disappointed, we thought we might be a little bit faster this morning, we were trying to go for 12th place – 8:02 gets an automatic place to the Olympics next year. We were 8:07 so we were about five seconds outside where we needed to be,” observed Peter Banks, national performance director of Swim Ireland.
“We were 16th – we still have an opportunity to be invited to the Olympics. It’s an outside shot, but we’re in the top 16 and once you’re in the top 16, you have an opportunity,” he added.