Sport

Shane Ryan narrowly misses out on a medal at European Short Course Championships

Twins Nathan and Daniel Wiffen reach 1500m freestyle final; Tom Fannon and Ellen Walshe miss out on finals

Shane Ryan of Ireland finished fifth in the 50m backstroke at the European Championships. Photograph: Andrea Staccioli/Inpho
Wed Dec 06 2023 - 19:14

Shane Ryan just missed out on securing Ireland’s third medal of the European Short Course championships, missing out on bronze in the 50m backstroke by two-hundredths of a second.

In Wednesday evening’s final in Otopeni, Romania, the 29-year-old’s time of 23.12 secured fifth place overall behind France’s Mewen Tomac (22.84), Germany’s Ole Braunschweig and joint bronze medallists Lorenzo Mora and Thierry Bollin (23.10).

Speaking after the race Ryan said: “It’s always difficult when you come into a meet not rested, as you still have expectations and I know what I’m capable of. I will keep a strong mind about it and look at the bigger picture as we’re saying here, so on to bigger and better things.”

Ryan will be back in action tomorrow in the 100m backstroke heats.

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Elsewhere, twins Daniel and Nathan Wiffen cruised into tomorrow’s 1500m freestyle final, progressing first and seventh respectively. Daniel, who won Ireland’s first ever European Short Course Gold medal last night in the 400m Freestyle, touched in 14:34.50,

Speaking after the race Daniel said: “My goal there was just to try and make it as easy as possible after last night and the toll it would have had on me, so as easy as possible to make it back and I’m happy to be first and in lane four for the final.” 

Ireland’s Nathan Wiffen on his way to qualifying for the final. Photograph: Andrea Staccioli/Inpho

For Nathan, the swim secured a first European Final at his debut Team Ireland competition. The Loughborough swimmer, home in 14:39.34, knocked nine seconds off his previous best of 14:48.69. Commenting post-race, Nathan said: “I’d said beforehand I want to make a final at my first international, and I’ve done that, very happy. I think I had a nine second pb, towards the start I had to go with everybody, but it felt comfortable in the end.”

Tom Fannon missed out on the final of the 50m freestyle after finishing five-hundredths of a second outside of the top eight. However, his time of 21.21 did break Shane Ryan’s previous Irish record of 21.35.

Ellen Walshe, who last night claimed a 400m individual medley bronze medal, was back in semi-final action in the 100m individual medley. The Templeogue swimmer touched in 1:00.11, bettering her time of 1:00.20 from this morning, to finish in tenth place overall.

In the women’s 200m backstroke semi-final, Maria Godden swam another best time, improving on the 2:07.10 this morning, to a 2:06.71 for eleventh place overall.

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