SWIMMING IRISH CHAMPIONSHIPSIT MAY have been an Olympic Trials event but, disappointingly, the Irish Long Course championships which concluded yesterday in Abbotstown, in Dublin, failed to produce any competitors for the Beijing Games.
Despite being the fastest domestic meet ever, with well over 20 senior and junior records broken over the four days, none of the approximate 300 competitors were able to break any of the tough A qualifying standards required by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and Swim Ireland.
Hopes were high Melanie Nocher would make the Olympics in her main event, the 200 metres backstroke, and the signs were good all weekend as the City of Belfast swimmer produced excellent performances in the shorter sprint races to set herself up for yesterday's attempt.
But Nocher's time of two minutes 15 seconds was over two seconds off the A standard of 2:12.73, and she also surprisingly lost the final as Dubliner Aishling Cooney beat her to the gold.
Cooney, winner of the 100 metres backstroke on Saturday, also took Nocher's Irish record, winning in a 2:13.86.
There is one more opportunity for Irish swimmers to qualify for China, and it's now certain Nocher, Cooney and Barry Murphy will travel to the Dutch Nationals in Eindhoven for one last attempt.
The closing date for nominations to the OCI for Irish swimmers to compete at the Games is July 9th, and so far Andrew Bree, currently under investigation for a positive drugs test, is the only Irish competitor to have dipped below the time required.
Karl Burdis of Portmarnock broke the 12-year-old Irish 100 metres backstroke record, twice. He lowered the old time by 0.63 of a second in the heats, and cut a further seven-hundredths of a second off the time when taking gold in the final.
