Sport

Barry Murphy doesn’t make 50m breaststroke final

Dubliner fades in final metres of European Championships semi-final in Berlin

Ireland’s Barry Murphy was disappointed not to make the final of the men’s 50m breaststroke at the European Championships in Berlin. Photograph: Andrea Staccioli/Inpho
Ireland’s Barry Murphy was disappointed not to make the final of the men’s 50m breaststroke at the European Championships in Berlin. Photograph: Andrea Staccioli/Inpho
Sat Aug 23 2014 - 01:00

Barry Murphy's dreams of making the 50 metres breastroke final in Berlin, were dashed in the last 10 metres of last night's semi-final.

Having made a good start, Murphy, in lane one, was in second place to Caba Siladji of Serbia as the eight swimmers headed for the wall.

But there it all went awry for the 28-year-old Dubliner as he began to “spin” in the water, eventually finishing fifth in 27.90 seconds.

The second semi-finalists knew the times they had to beat to make the decider and that race was much faster. Indeed Britain's Adam Peaty broke the first world record of the meet in 26.62 seconds, cutting .05 of a second off South African Cameron Van Der Burgh old time.

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Murphy was eventually placed 12th overall of the 16 swimmers. “I felt a bit of a tie up in the last 10 coming into the wall” said a disappointed Murphy. “Up until that point I had done what had planned to execute.”