Murphy keeping feet on the ground after silver joy

LESS than 24 hours after claiming a silver medal at the European Long Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Gráinne Murphy is discovering all about dealing with hype.

On Saturday, the Wexford teenager came second in the 1500 metres freestyle in a phenomenal 16.02.29 – taking eight seconds off the Irish record she set in the heats and the second fastest time in the world this year.

The achievement, the first Irish podium finish at the Europeans in 13 years, has ignited expectations of further glory at the London Olympic Games in 2012.

But the tyro, who has been setting the junior swimming world alight in recent seasons, is quickly learning how to avoid been pushed into making rash predictions.

She said last night: “The Olympics and London in 2012 are very far away. I am only about taking things day by day.

“I am not going to look too far beyond tomorrow. I’m going to take a break for a few weeks and then I’ll probably plan on the European short course in Eindhoven in November. I’m not looking beyond that and things like the world championships in Dubai in December.”

Murphy, who failed to progress from the 400m freestyle heats yesterday, admits she is struggling to cope with the response since finishing behind Lotte Friis of Denmark on Saturday.

She revealed: “It has been hectic. The reaction from people at home and on Facebook has been amazing.

“I have a lot of people to contact and thank. I wasn’t expecting a medal. But my focus was to go out, do my best and gain as much experience as I could.

“Training had been going really well. And it is nice to get this kind of result after all that hard work.”

Murphy, who is trained by Ronald Claes in UL, also impressed in the 400 individual medley final – finishing seventh while she was pipped for bronze in the 800m freestyle.

“I train six or seven hours a day with Ronald in Limerick. There are so many people I would like to thank after all of this, my mom and dad for their support. The Sports Council and Swim Ireland, the University of Limerick, the staff at the UL Arena and the Castletroy College in Limerick.”

Swim Ireland’s National Performance Director Peter Banks has described Murphy as “phenomenal.”

He said: “The amazing thing about Gráinne’s performances is that a lot of times we get athletes who go to the junior level and they do well there – Gráinne was no exception, she won three gold medals and a bronze last year at the juniors in Prague. But fair play to her coach and to herself who decided to step up the work and step up to the next level and set out a plan that was very direct and very pointed towards coming here to try and compete at the best level she could.

“Maybe she was a little better than we thought she was going to be. But I was watching her in training camp over the last two weeks and I’ve coached distance swimmers in the past and Gráinne was certainly doing things that were phenomenal in the training pool. I was glad to see that they transferred over into the competition pool.

Banks said that the national High Performance Plan for 2012 is now hitting top gear. “Our goal has always been to have 6 Olympic ‘A’ qualifiers and to have a finalist and we still continue to work towards that goal, we’re not going to change that goal,” stated Banks. “Gráinne is starting to lay the groundwork with other swimmers that we have here at the Europeans as well, and it’s been a great week for Irish swimming.”