2016 Olympians Oliver Dingley, Shane Ryan and Nicholas Quinn will spearhead Swim Ireland’s biggest World Championships team since 2009 in Budapest in July. Seven athletes were announced today in the squad that will travel to Hungary for the FINA World Championships.
Dingley will be Ireland’s first diver at a World Championships in many years. The 23 year old became Ireland’s first Olympic Diver last year in Rio in 68 years. He has been preparing for this year’s Worlds by competing in the FINA Diving World Series, an exclusive event for those that finished in the top eight at the Rio Games. Dingley will also have the opportunity to fine tune his dives at the LEN European Diving Championships in Ukraine in June along with Jack Ffrench.
Olympic 100m Backstroke semi-finalist Shane Ryan, recently finishing his senior year at Penn State University, comes back into the Irish fold and will look to convert his fantastic US College form in Backstroke swimming into long course metres racing. Rio 2016 team mate Nicholas Quinn will compete in the Breaststroke events in Hungary.
After a number of outstanding performances at last month’s Irish Open Swimming Championships, National 100m, 200m and 400m Freestyle Champion Jordan Sloan is selected for Budapest. Sloan broke the Irish 100m and 200m Freestyle Records in April.
Mona McSharry and Conor Ferguson will have their primary focus with the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis in August, but will relish the opportunity to experience a senior World Championships and compete in the Breaststroke and Backstroke events respectively.
With a strong national focus towards qualifying at least one relay team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Ryan, Quinn and Sloan will be joined by Brendan Hyland to compete in the 400m Medley Relay at the Championships.
Speaking at the announcement, Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd said “It’s very exciting for us to be able to select what is a relatively large World Championships team for Ireland, a blend of international experience in the likes of Shane and Nicholas and exciting young talent in Mona and Conor. To travel with a great group of individuals plus a relay into one of the World’s biggest events is a great start for us in our quest for success in Tokyo and we will of course also look forward to seeing Oliver compete off the boards after such a successful outing in Rio”.
Ryan, Quinn, Sloan and Hyland will also join a team of 13 selected by Student Sport Ireland for the World University Games in Chinese Taipei in August. They will be joined by UCD’s Darragh Greene and David Prendergast, Larne’s Conor Brines, National Centre (Limerick) athlete Rory McEvoy and 100m Freestyle Irish Open medallists Calum Bain of Cookstown and Curtis Coulter of Ards.
For the first time in history, Ireland will have two divers at the World University Games, with both Jack Ffrench and Natasha McManus hitting qualification scores in the 1 metre and 3 metre Springboard events to qualify.
FINA World Diving & Swimming Championships, 15th – 30th July, Budapest, Hungary
Swimming
Athlete Club Home Coach
Jordan Sloan Bangor Paul Dennis
Shane Ryan NAC Tim Murphy
Nicholas Quinn Castlebar Chris Jones
Mona McSharry Marlins Grace Meade
Conor Ferguson Bangor Alan Bircher
Brendan Hyland National Centre (Dublin) & Tallaght Dave Malone
Diving
Athlete Club Home Coach
Oliver Dingley Shamrock Diving Club Damian Ball
Team Staff
Team Leader Jon Rudd
Head Coach (Swimming) National Head Coach (TBC)
Head Coach (Diving) Damian Ball
Assistant Coach (Swimming) Grace Meade
World University Games, 20th – 27th August, Taipei, Chinese Taipei
Swimming
Athlete Club Home Coach
Shane Ryan Penn State University Tim Murphy
Nicholas Quinn University of Edinburgh Chris Jones
Jordan Sloan University of Ulster, Jordanstown Paul Dennis
Brendan Hyland Dublin City University Dave Malone
Rory McEvoy University of Limerick Lars Humer
Conor Brines Queens University Belfast Peter Hill
Darragh Greene University College Dublin Earl McCarthy
David Prendergast University College Dublin Earl McCarthy
Calum Bain University of Stirling Bradley Hay
Curtis Coulter Queens University Belfast Nelson Lindsay
Diving
Athlete Club Home Coach
Jack Ffrench Maynooth University Damian Ball
Natasha MacManus Princeton University Drew Livingstone
Team Staff
Head Coach (Swimming) Lars Humer
Head Coach (Diving) Damian Ball
Assistant Coach (Swimming) Paul Dennis
LEN European Diving Championships, 11th – 18th June, Kiev, Ukraine
Athlete Club Home Coach
Jack Ffrench Shamrock Diving Club Damian Ball
Oliver Dingley Shamrock Diving Club Damian Ball
Team Staff
Head Coach Damian Ball
