Irish swimmers continued to perform well at the European Youth Olympic Festival, with a number of strong performances on day two of swimming in Maribor, Slovenia. Niamh Connery (Sharks) and Sean Donnellan (Glenalbyn) both qualified for semi-finals, while Ava Jones (Portmarnock) and Gene Smyth (Bangor) also featured in the morning heats.
The below report is courtesy of the Olympic Federation of Ireland:
After a morning of strong performances in the pool this morning, Niamh Connery and Sean Donnellan qualified through to tonight’s semi-finals this evening in the Girl’s 200m Breaststroke and the Boy’s 200m Butterfly respectively. Also in action were Gene Smyth in the Boy’s 100m Freestyle and Ava Jones in the Girl’s 200m Breaststroke.
After an impressive heat this morning, Galway’s Niamh Connery was back in action in the pool for the Girl’s 200m Breaststroke semifinals this afternoon at the Pristan Swimming Centre. Connery finished in 13th place overall with a time of 2:39.21, just outside her personal best. Speaking after her race, she said,
“It wasn’t quite as good as earlier but I’m still happy with it, it was a little bit off my PB and I was really trying to work on my underwaters and my turns and I think I did that in the race so I’m happy. I didn’t know if I’d make a semifinal or not this morning, and I came 13th in the end so I’m delighted.”
Sean Donnellan finished top ten, after qualifying through to the semi-finals this morning in the Boy’s 200m Butterfly. The Dubliner finished 9th overall, narrowly missing out on one of the eight places in the final by 0.21, with a time of 2:05.76.
“I was a lot happier than this morning it is still a bit over my personal best but it’s difficult to swim faster over here. It’s a bit disappointing, I think I’m just off a final place. I’m happy, this is the level I thought I’d get to so it’s quite nice to be able to come here and perform like I thought I would. Even the tennis lads are up in the stadium supporting us, so it’s great to have the support and everyone behind you.”
Bangor’s Gene Smyth was the first Team Ireland athlete to dive into action this morning, competing in the Boy’s 100m Freestyle heats. Smyth finished in 7th place with a time of 53.29. It wasn’t enough to secure him a place in the semi-finals later today, but he will be back in action later in the week.
It was Smyth’s first event of this major championship, speaking afterwards, the Bangor swimmer said,
“The environment and the whole atmosphere of the place is unrivalled it’s like nothing I’ve ever been to before, I can’t say anything negative about it. It’s good to get the first race out of the way and it also makes me excited about the ones to come.”
In the Girl’s 200m Breaststroke heats, Dublin’s Ava Jones finished in 22nd place with a time of 2:40.93. The Portmarnock Swim Club athlete didn’t do enough to progress to the semi-finals. Her favoured event, the 100m Breaststroke takes place later in the week with the 50m Freestyle to follow. Speaking after Jones said,
“I’m disappointed time wise but I had a race plan going into and I felt like I executed it pretty well, I just don’t think the time came out as I wanted it to. But you know like sometimes it doesn’t always go as planned. I think often I hold back on the first 100m so this time I wanted to go out hard and on my third 50m just leave what’s out there and bring it back on the fourth. The third 50m is where I lost where I wanted it to be. I have the 100m breaststroke which I’m looking forward to, I really want to do well, it’s my favourite event.”
Results:
Sean Donnellan, Boy’s 200m Butterfly, 9th with 2:05.76
Niamh Connery, Girl’s 200m Semifinals – 13th with 2:39.21
Gene Smyth, Boy’s 100m Heats, 32nd with 53.29
Ava Jones, Girl’s 200m Breaststroke Heats, 22nd with 2:40.93
Schedule
Boy’s 200m Backstroke Heats, Brydan Byrne
Boy’s 200m Butterfly Final *Qualification dependent, Sean Donnellan
Boy’s 200m Backstroke Semi-Final *Q dependent, Brydan Byrne
Girl’s 200m Breaststroke Final *Q dependent, Niamh Connery
