The 11th edition of the Para Swimming World Championships kicks off at the Manchester Aquatics Centre tomorrow, July 31st and will run until August 6th. Manchester 2023 will be the third time the World Championships have taken place in Great Britain following London in 2019 and Glasgow in 2015.
The championships will be the first chance for team Ireland to qualify slots for Paris 2024, which is just over one year away. A gold or silver medal by any of the athletes will guarantee a slot for the team at next summer’s Paralympic Games.
The team is made up of four Paralympians and one new Irish para swimmer. Ellen Keane, Nicole Turner, Roisin Ni Riain and Barry McClements are joined by newcomer Dearbhaile Brady to make up the five strong Irish team.
Speaking about the championships, Para Swimming Performance Director, Dave Malone said, “Preparations have gone really well. We’ve had a tight schedule since Tokyo 2021 and the world championships last year in Madeira so it just seems like a really tight turnaround. This is an important week for us because it’s how we start the qualification process for Paris and all our performances here are vital in terms of securing as many slots as possible for the games.”
Commenting on the depth of experience in the team along with debutant Derbhaile Brady, Malone said, “There’s great experience across this team because we’ve always had a number of athletes that have tremendous careers across multiple games. As we go through that we have new athletes coming through all the time and it’s great to see another young athlete has stepped up into that space now.
This will be Dearbhaile’s first ever major championship. World championships for her is all about experience and being like a sponge trying to soak it all up and we’ll try to make the experience as positive as possible, and I think having more experienced athletes on the team only aides us in that development of our younger athletes.”
Daily schedules and results for the championships will be posted on our social channels.
The Manchester 2023 Allianz Para Swimming World Championships will be streamed live on the Para Swimming website, Facebook Page and Paralympics YouTube Channel.
Find out more about where to watch here.
Full Schedule and live results here.
Schedule (by athlete) Below:
Roisin Ni Riain
Day 1 (July 31): 100m Butterfly Final / Time: 18:02
Day 2 (Aug 1): 100m Breaststroke Final
Day 4 (Aug 3): 100m Backstroke Final
Day 6 (Aug 5): 400m Freestyle Heat
Day 7 (Aug 6): 200m IM Heat
Nicole Turner
Day 3 (Aug 2): 200m IM Final
Day 5 (Aug 4): 50m Freestyle Heat
Day 6 (Aug 5): 100m Breaststroke Final
Day 7 (Aug 6): 50m Butterfly Final
Barry McClements
Day 3 (Aug 2): 100m Butterfly Heat
Day 5 (Aug 4): 400m Freestyle Heat
Day 6 (Aug 5): 100m Backstroke Heat
Ellen Keane
Day 7 (Aug 6): 100m Breaststroke Heat
Dearbhaile Brady
Day 7 (Aug 6): 50m Butterfly Final