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Shane Ryan through to European Championships semi-final

American clocks another Irish record in the heats for the 50m breaststroke

Shane Ryan broke an Irish record in the heats of the 50m breaststroke in London. Photograph: Inpho
Shane Ryan broke an Irish record in the heats of the 50m breaststroke in London. Photograph: Inpho
Wed May 18 2016 - 12:42

Shane Ryan is through to the 50m Backstroke semi-final at the European Championships in London after he swam a new Irish senior record in Wednesday morning's heats - his second record of the week.

US-born Ryan, who has already qualified for the 100m backstroke at the Rio Olympics, struggled on Tuesday as he finished eighth in the final of the same event.

However he bounced back on Wednesday, setting a new Irish record of 25.19 seconds, to finish third in his heat and fifth overall in the rankings. The previous record of 25.35 had belonged to Conor Ferguson, who set it in March.

Russia’s Grigory Tarasevich will be the fastest seed in the semi-final after a swim of 24.85 seconds.

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But fellow Rio qualifier Nicholas Quinn struggled in the men's 200m breaststroke heats, finishing 24th after a time of 2:15.04.

He said: “I’m disappointed. I’d taken confidence from a good swim in the 100m Breaststroke and thought I could do well in the 200. I’ve been training really hard and am not rested so it’s not a bad swim in terms of that, this is just a practice run for the Games, I’ll take the positives from it and move onto the next race.”