IRELAND’S SHANI STALLARD and Fiona Doyle have qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 200m breaststroke at the European Swimming Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.
Stallard could only manage a sixth-place finish in her heat this morning but a time of 2:31.87 was good enough to see the 18-year-old finish 13th overall.
Swimming in the final heat, Doyle snatched the 16th and final semi-final place with a time of 2:32.20, pipping Noora Laukkanen of Finland by just one one-hundredth of a second.
In the women’s 4x200m freestyle heats, the Irish quartet of Sycerika McMahon, Melanie Nocher, Nuala Murphy and Bethany Carson qualified for tonight’s final.
The Irish team were seventh fastest with a time of 8:13.30, but with four Olympic places still at stake, they will need a dramatic improvement tonight if they are to qualify for London.
Earlier this morning, Carson dropped out of the women’s 100m butterfly in order to concentrate on the relay.