Conor Ferguson narrowly misses out on final place in Copenhagen

Ireland's Conor Ferguson failed to qualify for the 50m backstroke final at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Copenhagen, missing out by just 0.42 seconds.

Earlier on in the day the 18-year-old became the first Irishman to break 24 seconds when he qualified for the semi-final with a time of 23.97.

And, in his semi-final, he went lower again with a time of 23.84, but that wasn’t enough to book a place in the final as he came sixth out of eight swimmers.

Speaking after the race Ferguson said: “I’m really happy, it’s been great to end the meat off on a high, this week has given me more experience for the future. It was a bit of a rocky road at the start of the week, I was quite disappointed, but sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. I just had to change my mindset for the second half of the week and it definitely paid off.”

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Earlier on Mona McSharry — the newly crowned RTÉ Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year — ended her year with a 2:25.66 swim in the 200m Breaststroke.

McSharry’s final race of the year came after she set another Irish record of 1:05.01 in the 100m breaststroke.

Irish swimmers have had an impressive week at the Championships with 13 Irish records broken, this added to 16 Irish records at the Irish Short Course Championships in Lisburn saw 29 Irish Records broken across the past five days.

Day 5 Results

50m Freestyle Danielle Hill H 25.49 ISR

50m Backstroke Conor Ferguson H 23.97 ISR/IJR SF 23.84 ISR/IJR; Jordan Sloan H 24.48

200m Breaststroke Mona McSharry H 2:25.66

200m Butterfly Brendan Hyland H 1:57.60

4x50m Medley Relay Ireland Men H 1:35.63 ISR