Ireland’s Fiona Doyle is through to the semi-final of the 100m Breaststroke at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
Swimming in heat 5 of this mornings preliminaries, Doyle put in a morning’s best performance of 1:07.88 to finish 4th in the heat and 12th overall qualifying comfortably for the semi-final at 5.29pm this afternoon.
Speaking after her heat swim Doyle commented “I feel fantastic, it’s a relief to get the heats out of the way, I knew I had it in me, it was just a matter of going out there and doing it. I know I have more in me and im really looking forward to the semi-final tonight.”
21 year old Doyle’s current best time is 1:07.66, which she swam at the Wold University Games two weeks ago to win Silver, she will need to better that time by at least half a second to progress from this afternoons semi-final.
Lithuanian Olympic Gold medallist, 16 year old Ruta Meilutyte was the fastest qulifier in this morning’s Breaststroke heats in a new Championship and European Record of 1:04.52. The top 8 qualifiers from this afternoon’s semi-final will progress to the Final tomorrow.
Results: Day 2 Heats
Fiona Doyle 100m Breaststroke 1:07.88 (12th)
Breaststroke Qualifiers
1st R Meilutyte Lithuania 1:04.51
2nd J Hardy USA 1:05.18
3rd Y Efimova Russia 1:05.24
8th J Johannson Sweeden 1:07.21
12th F Doyle Ireland 1:07.88
Irish swimmers Sycerika McMahon and Barry Murphy both achieved lifetime best performances on the first day of swimming at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
McMahon was first up in the 200m Individual Medley, an event in which she was 22nd in the 2012 Olympic Games. The 18 year old had a strong start turning in 6th after the first 50 metres of Butterfly, although falling back to 10th after the Backstroke leg she put in a strong Breaststroke and Freestyle to finish 8th in the heat in a new personal best time of 2:14.38 and 18th overall. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu was the fastest qualifier in 2:08.45.
“I’m happy that I did a personal best, it being so close to a semi-finial position though is a downside to it” commented McMahon “but I’ve still got the 100 Freestyle left so I’ll just go all out for that.”
Barry Murphy continued his good form of late with a new personal best and Irish Senior Record of 23.65 in the 50m Butterfly heats. Murphy had set the previous record of 24.21 in June and was pleased with his performance saying “The goal time coming in was 23.6 and to do it was great, I would have liked to get a semi-final but we’re at this level and everyone is swimming fast. This swim puts me in a good place for the 50m Breaststroke in 2 days.” The Dubliner finished 18th overall.
