Ireland’s Fiona Doyle finished 7th in the 50m Breaststroke Final on the last day of competition at the European Swimming Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Doyle was ranked 6th going into the Final in a time of 31.30 seconds. However, the University of Calgary student was unable to match the time in the Final touching in 31.37 and seventh overall.
Doyle would have needed to break her Irish Record of 30.93 to win a medal with Bronze going to Moniek Nijhuis of the Netherlands in 30.64 seconds.
Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte was just .01 of a second off her championship record time from yesterday’s semi-final winning Gold in 29.89.
“I’m happy with that” commented Doyle after the race, “At the start of this week I didn’t think I’d even be able to pull out a second swim and I made the final of this 50m Breaststroke. Coming into the meet this isn’t where I would like to have been, where I know I am capable of being, but it’s been a long week emotionally and physically. I have to take something good from the week and being able to turn it around and make the final is something I can be proud of.”
Irish swimmers this week have produced 6 personal best swims, five semi-finals and one final, while Fiona Doyle and Sycerika McMahon both hit qualification times in the 50m Breaststroke for the World Championships in Kazan, Russia in 2015. Commenting on his team’s performance Swim Ireland National Performance Director Peter Banks said “It’s been a good week to evaluate where Irish swimming is half way through this Olympic cycle, we have a mixed week here in Berlin and may have missed some opportunities for semi-finals and finals, medals were always going to be tough to come by at this meet. But, our learnings will make us stronger going into the next two years in preparation for Rio”
Day 7 Results
Fiona Doyle 50m Breaststroke H 31.63 (13th) SF 31.30 (6th) F 31.37 (7th)
Sycerika McMahon 400m Freestyle 4:13.26 (13th)