Murphy takes seventh place in final

Swimming:Grainne Murphy claimed seventh spot in the final of the 400m individual medley on the opening day of the European Swimming Championships in Budapest.

The 17-year-old from Wexford finished fifth in her morning heat in a time of 4:41.80 but was unable to better that time as she came home in a time of 4:43.45 in a race won by Scotland’s Hannah Miley in a championship record time of 4:33.09.

Murphy got off to a good start and was in sixth spot after the first 50 metres of the butterfly leg. She would slip back to seventh at the start of the backstroke and last midway through the breastroke.

She fought back well to get ahead of Barbora Zavadova of the Czech Republic and eventually finish almost two seconds ahead of her.

“It’s a really good experience being out here and to be racing against World and European champions and to be in a final with them is a great achievement,” said Murphy after the race. “Maybe I would have liked to have gone a little bit faster, but there are always positives to think about. My stroke technique was very good and I was strong on all four strokes.”

Murphy goes in the 200m IM tomorrow morning.

Melanie Nocher failed to make the final of the 200m backstroke after she finished 13th of the 16 swimmers in tonight’s semi-finals

Nocher swam 2:13.30 in this morning’s heats but was marginally slower in her semi-final with a time of 2:13.32.

Earlier there was disappointment in the men’s 100m breaststroke as Andrew Bree and Barry Murphy were both well off the pace. Bree swam a time of 1:03.22 to finish 43rd while Murphy was marginally better (1:02.43) to finish 35th. Both men hold the Irish record at 1:01.76 and both have their stronger races still to come.

Ryan Harrison went in the 400m freestyle, splitting a controlled 1:57.23 at the 200m mark to finish in 3:56.71, one second outside his personal best and 24th overall. He goes in the 200m freestyle, his main event, tomorrow.