Banks stunned as swimmers can’t take the heats

A miserable morning in the Olympic Aquatic centre left two young Irish swimmers stunned and national performance director Peter Banks struggling for answers.

Though Melanie Nocher expressed satisfaction after finishing third in a 100m backstroke heat (1:02.44), teenage tyros Grainne Murphy and Sycerika McMahon both had nightmare Olympic debuts when trailing the fields in their events and declined to speak to reporters.

Banks admitted the results were well below expectations. He said: “My job as performance director is to take what we learned from this and from the preparation, and make sure that we’re better when we get there the next time. We set a standard and felt that top-16 was where we’d like to see our athletes. I still believe we have athletes who could be at that level. Have they performed to that level today? No, they haven’t, and I think you could see the disappointment. They’re disappointed they didn’t do the swims the way they wanted to. We’ve performed at the European levels and done well but the next step up is a tough step.