McMahon and Nocher earn Olympic qualification in pool

Two more Irish competitors, 17-year-old Belfast swimmer Sycerika McMahon and 23-year-old Melanie Nocher, have qualified for the London Olympics at the European Swimming Championships inDebrecen, Hungary, taking Ireland’s tally to four.

McMahon also qualified for today’s final of the women’s 100m breaststroke, when she was ranked fifth after the semi-finals, and both she and Nocher will now join Grainne and Barry Murphy in London this summer.

McMahon, former junior European double gold medallist, surprisingly made the plane to London with a strong swim in the morning heats, where she broke her own Irish record, registering 1:08.37, 12-hundredths of a second inside the Olympic A qualifying standard.