Róisín Ní Riain got Team Ireland’s Para Swimming World Championships off to a flying start by setting a new personal best, winning a silver medal, and securing a slot for at Paris 2024 for Team Ireland all in one go.
Her time of 01:06.00 in the 100m Butterfly Final (S13) saw her shave over two seconds off her previous fastest time to claim silver. A gold or silver medal at the championships means that that athlete’s country wins a slot for Paris 2024.
Speaking after her event Róisín said, “I’m really shocked to be honest! I love this swim as it’s not too much pressure for me. That’s my first PB in that event since Tokyo, I’ve been stuck there for a while so it’s nice to get a PB. I think this was kind of unexpected tonight, but it came as a nice surprise, but it definitely takes some of the pressure off for the rest of the week.”
Ni Riain is easily the busiest of Team Ireland as she is pencilled in to swim in five events over the course of the week, two of which could lead to more finals for the Limerick swimmer. Her next event, the 100m Breaststroke Final (S13) is tomorrow evening at 20:15.
This is the 11th edition of the Para Swimming World Championships.
Manchester 2023 will be the third time the World Championships have taken place in Great Britain following London in 2019 and Glasgow in 2015.
It is the first chance for Team Ireland to qualify slots for Paris 2024, which is just over one year away. A gold or silver medal will guarantee a slot for the team at next summer’s Paralympic Games.
The team is made up of four Paralympians and one new Irish para swimmer. Ellen Keane, Nicole Turner, Roisin Ni Riain and Barry McClements are joined by newcomer Dearbhaile Brady to make up the five strong Irish team.
“Preparations have gone really well,” said Para Swimming Performance Director, Dave Malone.
“We’ve had a tight schedule since Tokyo 2021 and the world championships last year in Madeira so it just seems like a really tight turnaround.”
“This is an important week for us because it’s how we start the qualification process for Paris and all our performances here are vital in terms of securing as many slots as possible for the games.”
“There’s great experience across this team because we’ve always had a number of athletes that have tremendous careers across multiple games. As we go through that we have new athletes coming through all the time and it’s great to see another young athlete has stepped up into that space now.”
This will be Dearbhaile’s first ever major championship. World championships for her is all about experience and being like a sponge trying to soak it all up and we’ll try to make the experience as positive as possible, and I think having more experienced athletes on the team only aides us in that development of our younger athletes.”
