Swim Ireland has announced details concerning the final Olympic qualification opportunity for a select few of the nation’s swimmers.
Taking place Thursday, June 24th – Saturday, June 26th at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, the Swim Ireland Performance Meet will feature individual Olympic events only. All athletes who enter the meet will be able to post times which will be considered as part of the selection process for the 2021 LEN European Championships (25m) in November and the 2021 FINA World Championships (25m) in December.
However, only the 10 athletes who have come within 1.5% of a FINA’ A’ cut in April are invited to compete at this Performance Meet, which includes the following:
· Niamh Coyne
· Nicholas Quinn
· Eoin Corby
· Brendan Hyland
· Calum Bain
· Conor Ferguson
· Jordan Sloan
· Finn McGeever
The athletes will try to add their names to the handful of swimmers who have already qualified to represent Ireland this summer in Tokyo. Already on the roster are the following:
· Shane Ryan – 100m Backstroke
· Darragh Greene – 100m Breaststroke
· Darragh Greene – 200m Breaststroke
· Mona McSharry – 100m Breaststroke
· Daniel Wiffen – 800m Freestyle
Swim Ireland National Performance Director, Jon Rudd, said: “When the 2021 Olympic Nomination Policy was revised as part of the ongoing COVID-19 circumstances, we foresaw at that time that athletes within the 1.5% of an Olympic qualification standard would travel into Europe to find a meet of their choosing during June as their final attempt at Tokyo qualification.
“With things as they currently are, we concluded that it was much safer in all regards for such athletes to make this attempt on home soil, avoiding international travel, whilst providing an additional qualification opportunity for those wishing to race in the international short course season at the end of this year.”