All four Irish swimmers were back in the pool this morning at the Para Swimming World Series in Sheffield. The quartet raced in the 50m Freestyle heats, with Ellen, Nicole and Barry out for a second time then in the heats of the 200m Individual Medley (IM).
National Aquatic Centre club swimmers Turner and Keane both secured places in the final of the IM this evening.
All the events are being run as multi, or ‘mixed’ class for the World Series with progression based on points calculated on times, therefore competition for places in the finals is fierce.
For example, 88 swimmers raced in the women’s 50m Freestyle heats with only the top twenty advancing to this evening’s finals. Turner in fact placed 19th overall in those heats but forfeited her final berth to concentrate on the favoured 200m IM final.
Almost 120 contested the heats of the men’s 50m Free for again; just twenty places in the finals. Both Irish swimmers; McClements and Flanagan were pleased with their performances but were outside the reckoning for the finals.
Twenty two year old Keane qualified 8th fastest for this evening’s final touching in 2:41.33 with team mate Turner 9th fastest in 3.18.01
The finals get underway at 5.30pm this evening and can all be watched live on www.paralympics.ie/competitions
