European junior gold for Murphy

Limerick High Performance Centre swimmer Grainne Murphy has won gold for Ireland in today's final of the 400 metres Individual Medley at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Prague.

Her winning time of 4:40.88 seconds was a new European Junior Championship and Irish Junior record, making her the first Irish swimmer to win gold as this competition.

Murphy's finishing time was just 0.8 seconds outside of Michelle Smith De Bruin’s current Irish senior record (4:39.18) which she set at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Murphy had qualified first in the heats this morning in a time of 4:46.66, itself a new Irish junior record, which then set her up as the number one seed going into the final, almost two seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

Ronald Claes, Swim Ireland's Limerick High Performance Centre head coach, described the victory as 'a momentous achievement that marks a turning point for Irish swimming.'

Two other Irish swimmers were also in action today at the European Juniors. Ballina's Tara Dunne competed in the 200m Backstroke and swam just outside her personal best, missing out on a place in the semi-finals.

Michael Dawson achieved a personal best performance in the 200m Breaststroke in a time of 2:22.04 but was unfortunately just outside the qualification for the semi-finals.