July 20, 2019
Irish divers Clare Cryan and Oliver Dingley completed their World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea with a new Irish Record score in the Mixed Synchro 3M Springboard Final today. Cryan, who impressed in the 1M Springboard final earlier in the week and Dingley, who had advanced to the 3M Springboard semi-final, combined for the final event of the World Diving Championships to set a new Irish Record of 266.49 and finish in 11th place, their last dive worth 69.75, their highest score of the event. The pair had held the previous best score of 255.18.
Speaking after the event, they commented ‘It was really good, especially that last dive, it was nice to get it down, last dive of the competition and it was great to do it as a team. There was a nice big crowd as well which always makes the competition special.’
Cryan and Dingley, along with Tanya Watson and Ciara McGing will be back in action from the 5th – 11th August at the European Diving Championships in Kiev, Ukraine.
Ireland’s swimmers will get their competition underway tomorrow at the World Championships. The team of ten will compete against the world’s best and will have their first opportunity at securing Olympic qualification times in the Nambu University Pool.
Darragh Greene will be one to watch as he takes on his main event, the 100m Breaststroke on day one. Greene has already been under the Olympic qualification time of 59.93 at the European Championships in 2018, clocking an Irish Record of 59.92 in the process. He will need to repeat or better that performance tomorrow to pre-validate* himself for the Tokyo Games.
17-year-old Ellen Walshe makes her senior international debut in the 100m Butterfly. The Templeogue swimmer is the Irish Junior Record holder (1:00.69) in the event and has been edging towards the senior record (1:00.21) with a best time of 1:00.44 this season.
Ireland’s Male 4x100m Freestyle Relay team will complete the morning. Shane Ryan, Robbie Powell, Jordan Sloan and Jack McMillan will be seeking a top 12 performance, which would secure a place for Ireland in Tokyo next year. Ryan, Powell and Sloan along with David Thompson hold the current Irish record in the event at 3:17.55.
National Senior Team Head Coach Ben Higson commented ‘Final preparation has gone well with a familiarisation camp held in Hamamatsu, our 2020 Holding Camp location. The athletes need to continue to build on the success of the 2018 LEN European Long Course Championships. These World Championships provide our athletes with their first opportunity to earn a ‘pre-validation’ for the Olympic Games and an opportunity to qualify our relays for the same as we are keen to support and reward those athletes who deliver at the summer benchmark meet.’
National Performance Director Jon Rudd added ‘Our swimmers are in a good place to now start competing, having had an excellent preparation period in both Japan and South Korea. We have something to look forward to each and every day of competition here in Gwangju and our swimmers will be looking to build upon the two finals and one semi final achieved by our divers. With an Olympic Games only 12 months away now, this event is a key stepping-stone towards Tokyo whilst being an important and high-profile event in its own right. There is no doubt that it will be fast and highly competitive and we have to be ready to take any advantage that we can’
Interview: Clare Cryan and Oliver Dingley HERE
