Irish swimmer with Laois roots happy with 'great swim'

Shane Ryan has finished tenth overall in the 100m Freestyle semi-finals on day two of racing at the World Swimming Championships (SC) in Hungary.

Swimming in the first semi-final, Ryan, whose dad is from Portarlington, clocked 46.24, just one hundredth of a second off the 46.23 Irish Record he set on Wednesday morning; the time saw him fourth, having gone from eighth after 25 metres, to leading the race at 75 metres.

A faster second semi-final saw the first five swimmers under the 46 second mark, making way for only two swimmers from Ryan’s first semi-final in Thursday’s Final.

"But it’s just I get better when I race and knowing and understanding my body and how it feels moving through the water efficiently, but still quick. I mean this Worlds is I think one of the fastest Worlds ever, I think on the first day there was seven world records broken and probably a lot more to come, so it is a quick Worlds, and I need to rest up now and get ready for the 50m Backstroke tomorrow," he said.

The National Centre Dublin Olympic swimmer is back in the pool on Thursday for the 50m Backstroke. Ryan won Ireland’s first ever world short course medal in the event in 2018 claiming bronze in 22.76 seconds, an Irish Record that still stands.

Ryan hails from Pennsylvania in the USA but has been swimming for since before the 2016 Rio Olympics. His father Tom emigrated from Portarlington in the 1980s. His mother, Mary Beth Bonner, is also of Irish descent. He still has plenty of relatives in Portarlington.