Harrison misses out on final spot

IRELAND’S Ryan Harrison narrowly missed out on reaching the final of the European Swimming Championships in Budapest yesterday.

The 21-year-old began the day with a respectable 1.49.80 heat swim in the morning and qualified 11th fastest for the semi-final.

He was looking ahead to the evening to put together another good race. A sub-1.49 swim was what was needed if he was to qualify for the final, and, after a gutsy swim — his second all-time best in fact — he finished 0.12secs shy of that, touching the wall in 1.49.04 — 10th place overall and second alternate reserve for the final.

“I definitely didn’t have any more left in the tank but there’s obviously bits and pieces of the swim that I could have tightened up on — my finish might have been a bit better,” said Harrison.

Harrison’s final event at this Championships is the 100m freestyle on Thursday morning and following his return to Ireland on Monday, the former University of Tennessee swimmer has decided to continue to make Ireland his training base over the next few months, in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games, in India this autumn.

In other Irish races yesterday, Bangor’s Clare Dawson finished her heat of the 100m freestyle in 57.72 — just over a second slower than her personal best. And although disappointed with her overall time, the University of Stirling student is now looking ahead to her main event, the 200m freestyle, which is on Friday.

“I’m a bit disappointed, but it was my first swim of the meet and it’s good to get in and get used to the pool, get used to the new suit and prepare for the 200m. I think my 100 has suffered a little bit due to a lot of the work I’ve been doing on pace for the 200m, so we’ll see what happens on Friday,” reflected the 22-year-old.

Andrew Bree withdrew from the 200m Individual Medley heats to concentrate on his premiere event, the 200m breaststroke which is today.

Gráinne Murphy scratched from the 200m Individual Medley today for the same reason, focusing on her 800m freestyle event.

Today Melanie Nocher is up in the 100m backstroke, and Andrew Bree is in the pool for his main event, the 200m breaststroke. Heats commence at 8.30am Irish time.