New Irish record for Tom Fannon who agonisingly misses out on Final spot

NEW IRISH RECORD: Tom Fannon produced another spectacular Irish record in the 50m freestyle semi-final at the La Défense Arena in Paris tonight but missed out on the Olympic final by an agonising tenth of a second. Picture: ©INPHO/Andrea Masini

Tom Fannon produced another spectacular Irish record in the 50m freestyle semi-final at the La Défense Arena in Paris tonight but missed out on the Olympic final by an agonising tenth of a second.

Fannon clocked 21.74 seconds to finish fourth in his semi-final, won in 21.54 by Jordan Crooks of Cayman Islands, and with the top-eight times from either heat advancing he faced a nervous wait to see if it was good enough. But with six men in the second semi-final going quicker, it bumped Fannon out of the qualifying positions, placing him 10th overall.

Earlier in the day, he broke the Irish record to win his heat in 21.79 which left the 26-year-old “over the moon”, adding: “I did not expect the time to be so fast considering my finish was so bad. But what a feeling I got at the end; I’ve never had a feeling quite like that. I said my major goal here was making it through the rounds and that is still the case, not a time, but just make it through, get your hand on the wall before the person next to you.” 

Fannon is a former European junior champion and represented England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before declaring for Ireland thanks to his Galway-born grandfather. He moved to Dublin to train with the National Centre team three years ago and has made great strides since, becoming the first Irish swimmer to break 22 seconds in the event last year. He had a sluggish start in the semi-final but powered home to again lower the Irish record, vastly outperforming his ranking to finish 10th.

“It’s a PB but also you want to make the final,” he said. “It’s annoying because I think if I swim that race again, I go faster. There were some things I didn’t quite like about that race. I left it a little bit too late and that’s one of the worst feelings but I have to be happy: first games, semi-final, almost a final, two Irish records. It’s head down now for the next four years, try to get a medal – that’s the goal.”