Swimming/European Championships: Ireland's Barry Murphy broke the national record twice as he narrowly failed to make the final of the men's 50-metres freestyle in Budapest.
The 21-year-old Dubliner, part of the collegiate programme at the University of Tennessee, was placed 12th of the 16 who emerged from the semi- finals, missing out on a place in the final by just 0.21 seconds.
His time of 22.63 seconds cut a further 0.14 off the Irish record he set earlier.
Murphy also had the satisfaction of registering a better time than Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, who finished behind the Irish swimmer in the second of the two heats.
Bartoosz Kizierowski of Poland eventually went on the take the gold medal in a new championship record time of 21.88, 0.24 off the world record held by the retired Russian Olympic champion, Alexander Popov.
"It's been a week of progression for me and I'm delighted to have gotten so far," said Murphy. "I set personal best times in three of my four swims this week and broke Irish records three times."
Julie Douglas and Clare Dawson were eliminated in the 50-metre freestyle heats. Douglas failed to get close to her Irish record time and finished in 26.79 seconds, while Dawson's time was 27.51 seconds.
