SWIMMING EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:IRELAND'S DREAM European Championships continued yesterday as both Barry and Gráinne Murphy reached their respective finals in Budapest.
In the morning Gráinne took an astonishing 18 seconds off the Irish record in the heats of the demanding 1,500 metres freestyle to qualify for yet another final, her third of the week in the Hungarian capital after the 400m individual medley and the 800m freestyle.
Not to be outdone last night Dubliner Barry, blasted through his semi-final of the men’s 50m breaststroke to make today’s final, recording a time of 27.60 seconds, taking second place from the “outside smoker” lane one and placing sixth overall.
In yesterday’s heats Gráinne showed little ill-effects from her 800m freestyle swim on Thursday where she just missed the bronze. Her time in the 1,500m of 16:10.32 placed the 17-year-old Wexford girl as the fastest qualifier into today’s final which is off the blocks at 4pm Irish time.
By winning heat one of three yesterday morning, Gráinne guaranteed lane four for the final and such was her dominance she ended the day two and a half seconds quicker than anyone else and almost eight seconds quicker than Denmark’s Lotte Friis, already a winner of the 800m title.
Gráinne, who looked a picture of health after her swim, is in contention to take the gold medal in this afternoon’s final.
“I was quite sore after the 800m on Thursday, but I was happy that I got back into the water and produced that time” she said.
“Its a tricky event. Lotte (Friis) is in there and so is the Spanish girl (Erika Villaecija Garcia) who was also in the 800m final, but some of the other finalists are open water swimmers so they may also come into it.
“But I’m not feeling too bad. We have a physio and I have a recovery programme in Limerick which helps. It’s a case of getting into that routine and sticking with it.
“I got a lot of messages from home after the 800m race and I want to thank everybody who got in touch.
“It’s very good for Irish sport in general and swimming in particular to see that the hard work is paying off.”
Barry was 14th overall after the heats of the 50m breaststroke after swimming a time of 28.02 seconds, and said afterwards that he tightened up in the last few metres.
However, after speaking to National Performance director Peter Banks, he cut out the mistakes in the semi-final and despite starting in the outside lane in the second semi-final, the 22-year-old finished second in a time of 27.60, to make today’s final in sixth place of the eight qualifiers.
“I was pretty pleased with that swim, it got me excited. It’s always difficult being on the outside lane but, hey, I got the job done,” said the US-based Irish swimmer
“I felt good, I felt great in fact. I spoke to Peter Banks after the heats and he pointed out my mistakes and that clearly helped because that was a solid swim.”
Claire Dawson was visibly upset not to make the last 16 of the women’s 200m freestyle. She finished 21st in a time of 2:01.96 while Melanie Nocher was one place further back.
In last night’s finals, the men’s Blue Riband, the 100m freestyle was won by Frenchman Alain Bernard in 48.52 seconds, just holding off Russian Evgeny Lagunov by .03 of a second with another French swimmer, William Meynard, in bronze.
France’s Sebastian Rouault took the men’s 800m freestyle title to add to the 1,500m crown he won earlier in the week. Russian Anastasia Chaun won the women’s 200m breaststroke title while Sarah Sjoestroem won the women’s 100m butterfly gold.
