Turner best of the Irish as world records fall in Dublin
PORTARLINGTON’S Nicole Turner was best of the Irish at the Para Swimming European Championships yesterday when settling for fifth in the final of the 200m individual medley at the National Aquatics Centre.
The 16-year-old put in a brave performance in what was her second final this week but it was not enough to compete with Britain’s Maisie Summers-Newton who broke the world record, winning gold in 2.59.60. Her compatriot and Olympic champion Ellie Simmonds had to settle for fourth.
In an event that uses all four swimming strokes, Turner was actually in fourth at the 100m mark, before eventually finishing a fine fifth, which was a four-second improvement on her time in the morning heat.
Earlier, Patrick Flanagan set the tone for the day as he recorded a five-second personal best in the 100m Backstroke S10 event, which marked a dramatic improvement for the young Longford man.
Unfortunately, his final did not go according to plan as he was disqualified for technical reasons.
Barry McClements also made his first appearance, and although he did not advance to the final, he will be happy to have got this warm-up swim out of the way as he looks to his stronger events later in the week.
Ailbhe Kelly was again inspired by competing in her home pool to reach her second final in the 400m freestyle S8 event, again showing her class as she produced her best ever performance in this event to set a new PB of 5:34:00 to finish fifth.
The final athlete in the pool for the host nation was European Championships debutant Seán O’Riordan. The young Corkman showed no sign of nerves as he recorded a PB of 1:21:29.
DISQUALIFIED
Jonathan McGrath suffered a big disappointment as he was disqualified in the call room for technical reasons and never had the opportunity to compete in his 400m freestyle heat.
Elsewhere, it was another day for records to tumble as Maisie Summers Newton and Thomas Hamer both set new world records for Great Britain with the other coming from Yaroslav Semenenko of the Ukraine.
Antonie Ponce Bertran (Spain) and Simone Barlaam of Italy both broke European records and, in the very last race of the day, the mixed 4 x 50m medley 20 Pts event, the Ukraine team shattered the world record to bring the curtain down on the competition.
The men’s 50m freestyle S4 finished in a dead heat as Arnost Petracek of the Czech Republic and Darko Duric of Slovakia both recorded a time of 40:40 to share the gold medal.
Today, Seán O’Riordan, Nicole Turner and Barry McClements will all return to the pool, while Ellen Keane will make her long-awaited first appearance in the Dublin competition in the women’s 100m butterfly at 12.31pm.