Nocher joins Irish greats with bronze
Medal: Melanie Nocher. Photo: Sportsfile
Melaine Nocher became only the fifth Irish swimmer to win a major senior medal when she took bronze in the women's 200m backstroke final at the European Short Course Championships in Szczecin, Poland, yesterday.
The 23-year-old follows Gary O'Toole, Michelle Smith, Andrew Bree and Grainne Murphy in claiming a medal, and the result fully justified her decision to pull out of Saturday's 400m freestyle final to focus on this event.
Ranked third heading into the morning heats, the Ards swimmer produced a great performance to set a new Irish senior record of 2:05.00, the second best heat time, and then went even faster in the final with a bronze medal-winning time of 2:04.29.
Nocher had trailed in sixth place after the first 50m but then came back with the second-fastest second 50m to move up into third, where she remained.
Ukraine's Daryna Zevina won gold in a new championship record time of 2:02.25, with silver going to Spaniard Duane Da Rocha Marce in 2:03.32.
Chance
Nocher, 23, said: "I can hardly put into words what this means to me. I have worked so hard to get to this position. Not many Irish swimmers have medalled at a major championships.
"I knew I had a chance of a medal going into the final and I just had to make sure that I swam my race, and that's what I did.
"I'm not just pleased for myself, but everyone in Swim Ireland. The whole set-up has become like a family.
"This week has been one of the best weeks ever for Irish swimming, with everyone doing personal bests."
Five other Irish swimmers also posted new personal best times: Nicholas Quinn (2:15.62) and Dan Sweeney (2:16.25) in the 200m breaststroke; Bethany Carson in the 200m freestyle (1:59.07); Jane Roberts in the 200m backstroke (2:14.51) and Shani Stallard in the 400m individual medley (4:53.52).
Grainne Murphy finished 13th in the women's 400m individual medley with a time of 4:43.28. She will now travel to the Duel In The Pool in Atlanta to represent Europe against the United States.
