Three Irish Swimmers Advance to European Finals in Kocaeli

The 2026 World Para Swimming Championships reached the halfway point this morning in Kocaeli, with all three Irish para swimmers competing in the heats advancing to tonight’s finals.

Following last night’s European final, Róisín Ní Riain was back on the blocks to compete in the 100m Freestyle (S13) heats. The Limerick native had a productive morning with a solid swim, clocking a time of 1:01.85, just 0.27 seconds shy of her lifetime best. The performance saw Ní Riain win her heat and qualify for tonight’s final as the third-fastest swimmer overall.

Speaking after this morning’s heat, Ní Riain said: “That’s a really solid morning; the aim is obviously just to build on that tonight. It was a late-night last night getting back and everything like that, so some well-needed rest now before tonight. I’ll get back and hopefully give a good, strong effort tonight. It’s not always easy being back so quickly after the night before. I really didn’t sleep at all last night, so maybe that was just caffeine or something like that. I’ll go back, have a nice nap and reset again for tonight.”

Deaten Registe, making his first appearance of the week, clocked a time of 1:08.44 in the 100m Breaststroke (SB14) to advance to tonight’s final. The Lisburn man qualified as the fourth-fastest swimmer, just one hundredth of a second behind Germany’s Florian Reiter.

Following the race, the Paris Paralympian said: “That felt good, it’s close to my PB so I’m happy with that. It felt a lot stronger than I’d usually feel in my race, and I’m happy with the time. For me, it’s mostly about progression and trying to hold that back-end speed, so the fact I went out in a 32 and felt good coming back is the best I can do. Let’s see what I can do in the final tonight.”

Emersyn Scully, making her first appearance for Ireland at a senior international championships, produced another fine swim, setting her third consecutive lifetime best. The New Ross swimmer clocked 1:25.89 in the 100m Breaststroke (SB14), a time that was enough to advance to tonight’s final as the eighth-fastest qualifier overall. It marks Scully’s second final in as many days.

The New Ross swimmer said: “I made a final again, this is crazy stuff! I feel pretty good about setting another personal best. It was a long season, so it shows the training worked. I was tired last night, so I’m going to go eat pasta and colour to rest before tonight.”

Ní Riain, Registe and Scully will join Dearbhaile Brady in today’s finals, with action set to get underway from 3pm (Irish time).