Murphy back to action in Lisburn

SWIMMING:BARRY MURPHY, one of two Irish swimmers to have gone under the Olympic qualifying A standard, has recovered from a respiratory infection which kept him out of last weekend's European Short Course championships and will be on the blocks at the three-day Irish Short Course Nationals, which get under way in Lisburn today.

The Dubliner, who also withdrew from the US Winter Nationals in Atlanta recently, will be the star attraction in Lisburn along with 16-year-old Sycerika McMahon, winner of two gold medals at this year’s junior Europeans. Murphy will contest breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley (IM) events and will also swim for Aer Lingus in the relays.

McMahon is entered in a host of events, including today’s 200 metres butterfly and 200m IM as well as swimming with her club Leander in the relays.

Other notable Irish squad members who will be in Lisburn include Karl Burdis, who has returned from the US to train at the Swim Ireland high-performance centre in Dublin, and Niamh O’Suillivan, who was part of the world championship team in Rome in 2009. However Melanie Nocher, winner of the bronze medal in the women’s 200m backstroke at the European short-course meet in Poland, won’t be in Lisburn, nor will Gráinne Murphy, who is flying to Atlanta to compete for the European All Stars in the Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool against the USA.

The last meeting of Europe and the USA took place in Manchester in 2009 where a decent European line-up consisting of swimmers from Britain, Germany and Italy were well beaten. This year’s European team will be shorn of many of its big names, including Alain Bernard of France, Germany’s Paul Biedermann and Italian great Frederica Pelligrini, while the US will be missing Michael Phelps.

Those confirmed for the European side include Lotte Friis of Denmark, who beat Gráinne Murphy to the women’s 1,500m freestyle title at last year’s Europeans in Budapest, and Laszlo Cech of Hungary, silver medallist to Phelps in Beijing in the 200m and 400m IM and 200m butterfly.