The concluding heats session of the World Para Swimming European Championships was a busy one for British athletes with 11 progressing into finals.
Fresh from her gold medal winning swimming in the S6 50m fly event, Eleanor Robinson went in the 100m Freestyle heats of her S6 classification and touched with the third fastest time of the morning, 1:14.87, and booked herself into the final
Talking about her heats swim Robinson said, “I think that went quite well, it was a good swim for a heat. The first fifty felt really good and then the second I was kind of using Mereshko to pace me a little bit, to control the speed and just make sure I got myself a place in the final.
“I was holding a little bit back, just wanted to keep up with her [Mereshko of Ukraine]. I’m hoping there’s still a little bit more in the tank for tonight.”
European bronze medallist Grace Harvey returned to competition in Dublin, she also went in the S6 100m Free and placed fourth with a time of 1:16.35 and will also feature in tonight’s medal deciding swim.
Zara Mullooly her strong international debut performance as she successfully qualified for the Women’s S10 50m Freestyle final.
Commenting after her swim Mullooly said, “This morning the heats were all about going out fast and then cruising it back on the final 50m to practice getting out there with a strong start.
“I’m happy with the time too, it’s where I wanted it to be in the heats. Tonight I’m hoping I can get a medal and then ending my week in Dublin I’m swimming the last leg of the relay, so that should be fun.”
Her time of 1:03.05 for two laps of the freestyle in the Irish capital meant she progressed as the third fastest athlete.
It was a personal best swim of 26.43 for Lewis White in the splash and dash heats of the Men’s S9 50m Freestyle and there was nothing to separate him and Leo Lahteenmaki of Finland, they both set the same time to qualify joint third fastest for the final.
“It didn’t feel like the best heats swim I’ve done but can’t complain about a PB so I’ll take it,” said White.
“The plan now is to go back and rest, have some food and then come back fighting tonight.
Reflecting on his week White added, “It’s been a good week here so far in Dublin, still tonight’s race to go and then is my sole focus now, so yeah fingers crossed for later.
Only a European record could prevent Andrew Mullen topping the rankings in the Men’s S5 50m Butterfly heats.
Mullen clocked a new seasons best of 37.32 behind Ukrainian Yaroslav Semenenko’s 35.03 and will line up tonight behind lane five in the hunt for the continental podium.
“It was decent race, I think executed the race plan well I think and now I’ll go back and watch analysis back to see if there is anything I can tweak for the final.
“It’s been a bit of a curveball this week with a couple of the guys changing classifications but it’s important that I just focus on my race, I don’t really care who I have to swim against I just focus on what I’m doing.”
The Men’s S14 200m Individual Medley saw three British swimmers in action. Tom Hamer, who’s already claimed gold in Dublin was the top ranked Brit in fourth with a season’s best time of 4:19.31.
Jordan Catchpole placed seventh, his time 2:20.73 and Conner Morrison touched in a time 2:23.17 and eighth – all three progressed to tonight’s final.
The British one-two-three podium medallists of Jessica-Jane Applegate, Bethany Firth and Louise Fiddes were back in action in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley.
Applegate placed first in the opening heat with her time 2:29.17 and was also ranked top at the conclusion of the event.
Fiddes charged to the touch in heat two, 2:29.70 her time ranked her second overall and Firth completed the top three with 2:30.66.
Firth said, “I’ve had lots of races this week so I decided to go out there and do what I needed to do to get in the final.
It’s really nice having my teammates beside me but you forget about them when you’re in there racing.”
All three will be hoping to make it another British clean sweep of the European Championships podium.
Oliver Hynd went in the Men’s SB8 100m Breaststroke, he posted a time of 1:42.03 and ranked 12th overall.
GBR have several athletes in straight finals this evening including, Rebecca Redfern in the Women’s S13 50m Freestyle, Stephen Clegg in the S12 100m Butterfly and Michael Jones in the S7 400m Freestyle.
Click here for full results and time from the final heats session of the Dublin 2018 European Championships.