A team of five Irish swimmers are set to compete at the opening meet of the new Para Swimming World Series in Copehagen this weekend (11th & 12th March).
The team features Rio Paralympic bronze medallist Ellen Keane, as well as fellow Paralympians James Scully, and Nicole Turner. They will be joined by upcoming young swimmers Barry McClements, and Patrick Flanagan.
Bringing together some of the biggest competitions on the global calendar, the World Series will take in five countries across Europe and the Americas between March-July, leading into the 2017 World Championships in Mexico City in October. This first meet in Denmark will see 122 swimmers from nineteen countries begin the 2017 international season.
Speaking about the meet Irish team manager Hayley Burke said; “We’re looking forward to racing this weekend at this first World Series event of its kind. This will be the first time for Ellen, Nicole and James to race internationally since Rio and for Barry and Patrick it’s been nearly a year. They’re all in key phases of training at the moment so this will test them and showcase where they are at currently in terms of fitness. This is our first Meet of the Tokyo cycle so it’ll lay down performance markers on which to build over the next three years.”
All athlete’s results at each World Series edition will be calculated using a standardised points system via an online virtual competition platform. This will ensure that the overall World Series winner will be the best performing athlete over the duration of the series, meaning that every performance counts.
