Swimming/European championships: The championships get under way in Budapest this morning with seven Irish swimmers competing during the week-long event in the Hungarian capital.
While medal chances are slim, two of the Irish swimmers are in cracking form. Andrew Bree, whose main event is the 200 metres breaststroke, is ranked sixth in Europe and his best time of two minutes 14.18 seconds netted the Tennessee-based swimmer fifth place at the Commonwealth games in Melbourne.
It sets him up nicely for a crack at his favourite event, the heats of which hit the water on Wednesday morning.
Barry Murphy - like Bree, at Tennessee University - heads to Budapest on the back of an astonishing swim at last week's national championships in Lisburn, where he not only lowered Steven Manley's Irish senior record for the 100 metres but also became the first Irish swimmer to go under 49 seconds for the blue-riband event.
The squad for Budapest is completed by Jonathan Nixon, Clare Dawson, Melanie Nocher, Julie Douglas and Ciara Farrell, with Keith Bewley the head coach and Terry Denison, Swim Ireland's high-performance consultant, also part of the travelling squad.
Nocher, Bree, Nixon and Douglas competed in this year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for Northern Ireland.
Irish medallists at major meets have been few. Gary O'Toole won a silver in the 200 breaststroke in Bonn, then in West Germany, back in 1989, and he and Michelle Smith were Ireland's only medallists before Bree took silver at the European Short Course Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in December 2003. Bree's ultimate aim is to make the Irish Olympic team for 2008 in Beijing.
Bree, Murphy and Nixon will compete in the heats of the 100 metres breaststroke today, while Nocher goes in the heats of the 200 metres breaststroke and Douglas competes in the 50 metres butterfly.
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