Irish 4x100m medley relay teams break national records but miss out on finals

BOTH IRISH 4x100m medley relay teams broke national senior records, but missed out on qualifying for their respective swimming finals at the 2024 Olympic Games.

The men’s and women’s quartets both finished sixth in their heats — after other teams were disqualified — and 11th overall at La Défense Arena in Paris.

Conor Ferguson, Darragh Greene, Max McCusker and Shane Ryan clocked a time of 3:33.81.

Ryan produced a superb freestyle leg to touch the wall in seventh, but the Irish team were upgraded to sixth after Spain were disqualified.

“’It was good to get national senior record for the team as a whole,” Ferguson told reporters afterwards.

“I think my lead-off leg just wasn’t good enough, if I’m being honest. I think if I was a bit better we would have been in that final, so I’m disappointed in myself but I’m delighted for the team.”

“The most important thing and the hardest thing was just getting ourselves here, and we definitely did that,” three-time Olympian Ryan added.

“At the big meets we really want to come in and swim faster. We got the record there, and it was an honour to represent Ireland again.”

USA won the heat in 3:31.62, while France went faster in the earlier one in a time of 3:31.36.

Danielle Hill, Mona McSharry, Ellen Walshe and Grace Davidson followed suit with a time of 4:00.12.

Olympic bronze medallist McSharry put Ireland in contention with a stunning breaststroke effort.

Like Ryan, 16-year-old Davidson touched home in seventh — but Ireland were bumped up to sixth after Italy were disqualified — as another record fell.

“I’m super happy, really proud of the girls,” McSharry reflected. “We all got up here on the second last day and performed. It was so much fun and everyone brought really good energy this morning, which was nice.”

“We went out there and gave it absolutely everything we could have possibly dreamed off to get an Irish senior record to finish the week,” said Walsh.

Defending champions Australia won the first heat in 3:54.81, while Canada triumphed Ireland’s in a time of 3:56.10.

- With reporting from Sinead O’Carroll in Paris