Murphy, Nocher duel the highlight

SWIMMING:THE PERSONAL duels between Ireland's leading swimmers, Gráinne Murphy, the 2010 European 1,500 metre silver medallist, and Melanie Nocher, will be the highlights of the National Long Course (50m) Championships at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) in Dublin.

The pair will clash in the women’s 200m freestyle today, the opening day of the four-day meet. The championships, which get under way this morning, are a World Championship qualifier for Shanghai next July and Ireland already have two qualifiers for the prestigious event.

Dubliner Barry Murphy, who is now ranked eighth in the world in the men’s 100m breastroke, has already booked his flight along with Gráinne Murphy and fellow US-based swimmer Ryan Harrison.

Andrew Bree won’t be in Dublin this week as he and Harrison will compete in meets in the States over the next few weeks in an effort to make the Irish team for Shanghai.

Harrison is the fastest swimmer in US colleges at the moment in the 200m freestyle, but as he swam that event in yards rather than metres, he still has to post a World Championship qualifying time and has until May 31st in which to do so.

Murphy and Nocher have entered the women’s 200m freestyle on the opening day of competition as Nocher bids to make the Irish team for China.

Swim Ireland’s intention is to run an Irish women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team at the worlds and this is an ideal opportunity for the girls to collectively make the qualifying standard.

Nocher surprised herself at the European Short Course (25m) Championships in Eindhoven last year when she led Murphy at the 250-mark in the 400m freestyle only to fade in the backend of the race and her battles with the double short course bronze medallist will be the highlights of the week.

Others who have confirmed for the Dublin meet are Olympian Aisling Cooney, plus high performance squad members Bethany Carson, Nuala Murphy, Andrew Meegan, Niamh O’Sullivan, Karl Burdis and open water distance swimmers Chris Bryan and Andrew Meegan.

The heats get underway at 9.30am with the first of the finals off at 4.30pm each day.