Grainne Murphy takes seventh place in European Swimming Championship final
Grainne Murphy made it to the seventh position in the women’s 400 metre individual medley on the first day of the European Swimming Championships currently taking place in Budapest in Hungary.
Murphy, the 17-year-old swimmer from Wexford managed to finish her morning heat in a time of 4 minutes and 41.80 seconds landing on the fifth spot. Failing to cut down on her timings, she was not able to break the record set by Scotland’s Hannah Miley who finished the same race as Murphy in a time of 4 minutes and 33.09 seconds. Meanwhile, Murphy took 4 minutes and 43.45 seconds to finish the swim.
Although, Grainne took a good start and was placed on the 6th place after the first 50 metres of the butterfly stroke, she fell back to the 7th at the beginning of the backstroke and half way through the breaststroke.
She did however give some tough competition to Barbora Zavadova of Czech Republic and succeeded to swim past her and finished the 400 metre medley 2 seconds before her.
After the game ended, Murphy said that she was confident of her strokes and tactics while swimming. She enjoyed the experience of competing against the European champions and considered this competition as one of her great achievements. However, she did admit that her timings needed to improve and she was positive about her next meet.
Murphy will be a part of the women’s 200 metre individual medley this morning.
In the same contest, the semi-final that took place last night saw Melanie Nocher finished at the 13th place out of the 16 women participating in the race. She was not good with her last 200 metre in the backstroke event. Nocher finished the swim in 2 minutes and 13.20 seconds in the heats on the same morning. However, she finished the semi-final quite slower in a time of 2 minutes and 13.32 seconds.
The men’s event proved to be a disappointment. In the men’s 100 metre breaststroke, Andrew Bree and Barry Murphy were way slower than usual. Both men, holders of the Irish record with a time of 1 minute and 1.76 seconds, made it to the 43rd and the 35th positions with timings of 1 minute and 3.22 seconds and 1 minute and 2.43 seconds respectively. Ryan Harrison grabbed the 24th place overall in an overall time of 3 minutes and 56.71 seconds - a timing one second slower than his personal record. Harrison went in the 400 metre freestyle and finished the 200 metre mark in a time of 1 minute and 57.23 seconds.
European Swimming Championships, more popularly known as the European Aquatics Championships is a biennial event since 2000, which takes place in the even numbered years, and is organized by the LEN which is the governing organization for the aquatics in the Europe. The aquatics include long course, open water and synchronized swimming, and diving.
Under normal circumstances, the championships are scheduled in mid to late summer. But recently due to the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, the two week event was shifted away from the Olympics. This championship is one of the first few swimming competitions in the world.
The European Aquatic Championships 2010 are scheduled to take place at Hajos Alfred- Tamas Szchy Complex, Margaret Island in Budapest, Hungary. Fans will be able to see live broadcast of the event on the various television channels.
Murphy hails from Wexford, Ireland, but is under training at the University of Limerick, under the supervision of the coach Ronald Claes.
Melanie Nocher, the 13th place finisher for the European Championships will be representing Northern Ireland at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. She became the new Irish record setter two weeks ago. Her semi-final timings, however, did not get her into the top eight.
In the upcoming contests in Hungary, Ireland will have three active competitors. Claire Dawson will be seeing her competition in the women’s 100 metre freestyle heats while Bree will be in for the men’s 200 metre individual medley. Harrison will be seen in action in the men’s 200 metre freestyle.
In other contests which took place on Monday, the record setter and world champion from Germany, Paul Biderman won the gold medal over Yannick Angel of France (silver) and Gergo Kis of Hungary (bronze) in the men’s 400 metre freestyle.
Russia was the winner of the men’s 4 into 100 metres freestyle relay while Germany won the women’s event in Hungary on Monday.
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