Home News Irish Swimmer Chris Bryan finishes 33rd at World Open Water Championships Press...

Irish Swimmer Chris Bryan finishes 33rd at World Open Water Championships Press Release

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Irish Swimmer Chris Bryan has finished in 33rd position at the World Open Water Championships in today’s 10km race in Shanghai, China. The event represented the first opportunity for qualification to the 2012 London Olympic Games, and although Bryan did not finish inside the top-10 required for automatic qualification, he will have another opportunity to make the Games at a World Cup meet in Portugal next year.

Bryan is based at the University of Limerick High Performance Centre under Head Coach Ronald Claes and trains full-time alongside European Silver Medalist Grainne Murphy. He finished in a time of 1 hour 56 minutes 52.8 seconds, just under 2½ minutes behind the winner.

The event was won by Greek swimmer Spyros Gianniotis in a time of 1 hour 54 minutes 24.7 seconds. The silver medal was won by Thomas Lurz of Germany (1:54:24.7) with third going to Sergey Bolshakov of Russia (1:54:27.2).

Speaking from Shanghai, National Performance Director Peter Banks commented on Bryan’s performance. “It is a fantastic result for Chris, who is the first Irish swimmer to compete in Open Water competition at this level. He has made the transition from pool swimming very well this year and is performing strongly in a highly competitive and tough racing environment.”

Chris Bryan will also compete in the 5km race at the World Championships this Friday (22nd July) and will be confident going into this race, after a first place finish in the second leg of the 2011 European Open Water Swimming Cup recently.