The good form of the Irish team continued on the penultimate day of the Para Swimming World Series meet in Berlin. In this morning’s heats Ards teenager Barry McClements was just outside his best time placing fourteenth of the ninety-one swimmers in the 400mFreestyle heats. He touched in a time of 4:33.20 which was good enough for a place in the ‘B’ final this evening but he has been withdrawn from that race on medical grounds by the Irish management.
Debutant Sean O’Riordan from Cork recorded another personal best swim, this time in the 50m Freestyle heats touching in 29.06sec. His time saw him ranked sixth of the twelve T13 swimmers competing in that event.
Team mate Patrick Flanagan was also pleased to set a new personal best in the heats of the 400m Freestyle with a mark of 5:45.00. With Rio Paralympian Nicole Turner also a medical withdrawal today and Rio medallist Ellen Keane not racing until tomorrow Dubliner Ailbhe Kelly was the final Irish swimmer in action this morning.
The Castleknock teenager, who has just completed her leaving Cert swam a 5:43.57 in the heats of the Women’s 400m Freestyle. While that time was not enough to advance to a final it saw her placed fourth of the twelve S8 swimmers in the event. That concludes the Irish participation for today with focus shifting to the final day of racing in the German capital tomorrow.
All races at this new World Series are being run as multi classification the races are decided by points according to the swimmers’ classes and the time they clock. Many of the world’s leading swimmers are competing this weekend vying for just a handful of places in the evening finals. Already over 22 world records have fallen at this meet.
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. The overall winners of the first ever World Series titles will be decided in Berlin.
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. At the previous editions in Copenhagen and Sheffield the Irish team claimed medals and several personal best performances.
A live stream of all heats and finals should be available here
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