More records for Ryan but he falls just short of final
WORLD 50m backstroke bronze medallist Shane Ryan continued his record-breaking form in the semi-final of the 100m freestyle at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in China yesterday.
Despite swimming a new Irish record, Ryan missed out on the final, finishing in 12th place overall. The 24-year-old obliterated the previous Irish record of 47.84 in the heats, touching in 46.97 seconds, he then lowered that once again to 46.93 in the semi-final to make it his fifth individual – and a relay – record so far this week.
Ryan confirmed that he would be returning to Ireland to train full time in January, a move that was welcomed by Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd.
‘Following Shane’s performances at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, we had a lengthy meeting with him to discuss how we could convert his success in 50m backstroke swimming to that of the Olympic 100m distance with Tokyo 2020 just around the corner.
‘With the coaching team and support practitioners that we now have, we very much have a performance centre which is as good as any in the world which Shane recognised this quite readily.
‘I know what Olympic medal talent looks like – and it looks like Shane. He just needs the day-to-day attention to detail, individualisation and resource to turn that talent into an [Olympic] podium prospect,’ Rudd continued.
‘And so over recent months we’ve all been putting our ducks in a row as to how this will work for him and us. We’re delighted that Shane will be a full-time member of the NCD set up from January 2019 right through into the Games itself.
‘It means that we have the vast majority of our potential Olympians under one roof, getting the best support that Ireland has to offer. To have all of the potential members of the male 400m medley relay training together each day is also a massive plus for us.
‘This will galvanise them further as a team and they will go into their primary Olympic qualification opportunity at the 2019 World Championships in Korea as a stronger and more resolute force.’
Earlier, Ryan was also part of the Ireland men’s 4x50m medley team that set another Irish record. Along with Conor Ferguson, Darragh Greene and Brendan Hyland, they were impressive touching in 1:35.05, knocking .58 off the previous record of 1:35.63 set at the 2017 European Championships.
The time left the team in 10th place overall and confident going into the 4x100m version of the event today, where they will look to break a longstanding Irish Record of 3:45.66 set in 2001.
Ryan added: ‘I always love relays. It’s so much fun and you never know what could happen. We have a great relay that could really do some damage. If we hit everything right we will be in the top eight and get a second swim.’