Fiona Doyle fails to advance from European Championships semi-final

Having narrowly missed out on a medal in the women's' 100 metres breaststroke, Limerick's Fiona Doyle failed to advance from the semi-finals of the longer 200 metres breaststroke at the European Championships in London.

Doyle who missed out on a bronze with a fourth placed finish in the women’s 100 metre final on Wednesday qualified 11th overall for last night’s last 16 in a time of 2.29.07. The 24 year old is a breaststroke sprinter and to make the last 16 of the 200 was an added bonus.

After the first 50 of the second semi-final, Doyle was in touch with the leaders in fifth place, but the medal favourites moved away from the Irish swimmer from that point.

In the end Doyle had to be content with seventh – in a race won by Spain’s Jessica Vall Montero – and her time of 2.28.75 was good enough for 13th place overall.

“The 200 is not like the 100, it’s a totally different event, but I gave it my best shot,” said Doyle. “It’s still an event that my coach likes me to do and I use the 200 to improve my 100 swims.”

Doyle’s 15-year-old team- mate, Mona McSharry from Sligo also swam the 200 breaststroke heats, but couldn’t make the last 16.

There were three Irish swimmers in the men's 100m freestyle and Curtis Coulter was the fastest of the trio recording a time of 49.59 seconds, but he, along with Shane Ryan and Jordan Sloan, failed to make the semi-finals. As a result of being faster than Ryan and Sloan, Coulter will now be on the anchor freestyle leg for the 4x100m medley relay.