Murphy's stroke proves a timely coup

SWIMMING EURO CHAMPIONSHIP:IT TOOK just over 16 minutes. In that time Gráinne Murphy put Irish swimming on its most steady footing for many years. The sport that has so often had to look shamefully back can allow itself to take a peek towards the future with some optimism.

Murphy’s grasping of the moment in Budapest was a leap towards London 2012. Her time over 1,500m is the second fastest in the world this year. Her swim in the 800m freestyle was the eighth fastest in the world in 2010.

At this point in the season she is in the world’s top 10 over two distances.

The 1,500m is not an Olympic event and Murphy’s focus over the next two years may fall on the shorter swims, but for the first time since Michelle de Bruin won her titles 13 years ago in Seville an Irish woman has stepped on to a European podium.

This week, however, there was a considerably different mood and Murphy’s silver medal was embraced without the cynicism that followed De Bruin around the pools of the world.

Where Murphy’s achievement is being celebrated as a breakthrough success for her coaches Ronald Claes and Peter Banks as well as Swim Ireland, De Bruin’s astonishing times and haul of four Olympic and seven European medals were not universally accepted.

Her fall from grace with a four-year ban from the sport that farcically began in a Kilkenny lavatory and concluded in court with Dr Jordi Segura, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, publicly testifying that her urine has been spiked with whisky and contained Androstenedione.

De Bruin’s conquering of the sport arrived to the backdrop of Irish swimming going through convulsions and where three of the top coaches ended their careers in disgrace, two of them imprisoned for sexually abusing and assaulting young swimmers, the most recent, Ger Doyle, sentenced to six and a half years for assaulting five boys in January of this year.

The Minister for Sport at the time, Jim McDaid, also suspended government funding to swimming until it got its house in order and he commissioned a report by the then senior counsel Roderick Murphy, which was presented in 1998.

That was two years after De Bruin had won her three gold medals and a bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games.

Swimming didn’t know what to think of itself. No one knew what to think of swimming.

“What this medal means to Irish swimming is that it is a ratification of a lot of hard work that has gone into trying to develop the sport,” said performance director Banks.

“As you say, it’s gone through a hard patch over the last couple of years and it has been the plan of Swim Ireland and the Irish Sports Council to put in place a programme in Ireland. Gráinne is the fruit of this programme.”

Banks and Claes will now put together a clearly defined path for Murphy looking towards next year’s World Championships in Shanghai and then London. What they have also shown is that a system has been put in place in Ireland that can produce top swimmers.

One silver medal, four national records, four finalists and three semi-finalists an upward curve.

“As performance director for Swim Ireland, it gave me enormous pride to see Irish swimming is being recognised and can be world class,” added Banks.

“You are always very proud for any swimmer that achieves that. You know how hard they work and how hard they train and I know Ronald Claes will have a very clearly defined goal as they build towards next year’s World Championships and London 2012.”

Although Murphy smashed Irish records her times will require further work for the world events over the next two years. Rebecca Adlington won the 2008 Olympic final in Beijing in 8:14.10 to Murphy’s 8:25.04 fourth place in Budapest.

The British champion had the advantage of the now banned bodysuit, but when the Americans begin to get into the water, times will fall. American Kate Ziegler’s 2007 swim for the 1,500m was 15:42.54 compared to Murphy’s silver medal time of 16:02.29.

One swim in Hungary won’t erase Irish swimming’s murky past but it bodes well for the future.

The 17-year-old is the first to illustrate that Swim Ireland have got an important part of their structure working.

They have rightly taken the slings and arrows over two decades but it would be churlish not to acknowledge the sport for its contribution.

Murphy happened to be the talent who came along.

To the sport she will mean much more than just a Wexford girl who can swim fast.