The Irish relay team set an important record to finish sixth in the world final

Jack McMillan, Jordan Sloan, Finn McGeever and Robbie Powell took 21 seconds from the Irish Senior Record to become the first Irish relay team to qualify for the World Championship Finals in 28 years. The quartet, training across the Irish National Swimming Center in Bangor, Dublin and Limerick, then went three seconds ahead in the final to set a new standard at 6:59.54.

The first dive in both rounds was Jack McMillan, and his lap time in the Finals was 0.1 behind the Irish Senior 200m Freestyle Record.

McMillan said: “My job is to get the team off to a good start, give them the confidence to come in. To get under seven minutes, that’s pretty cool. I just enjoy myself cheering on the kids, especially Robbie taking him back there. That’s amazing from everyone.”

Next up is Jordan Sloan, who trains with McMillan at the new Ulster National Center at Swim Ireland in Bangor.

He said: “Everyone stepped on it a bit from this morning. You can’t really ask for more and getting under seven minutes is pretty cool. I thought it would be a boost after this morning, because we were 7:02.3, but doing 6:59 was pretty good and we’re just going to build from there for the long term.”

Finn McGeever, from National Center Limerick at the University of Limerick, has been in a rollercoaster year, achieving his first Irish Senior Record in the 400m Freestyle in April, then helping set the Irish Senior Record for this event at the LEN European Aquatics Championships in May, before made his Olympic debut – again at this event – ​​in Tokyo 2020.

McGeever said: “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this. It’s really cool to be out in the World Finals. This is my first individual senior meeting as well as I did in the 400m Freestyle, so it’s all new to me.

“In the race, I felt better than this morning and we all carried on. As Jordan said, what more could you ask.”

Lastly is Robbie Powell, who trains at the National Center Dublin at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Center and has been out of international competition since 2019.

Powell said: “It’s my favorite position – I’m happy to be in the last position. I’ve been doing it since junior, in medley – I’ve always been a 100 freestyler. It’s been a long few years for me, so I’m happy to be back there in that last position and enjoying it.

Speaking of the Irish Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay progress, Powell added:

“It’s just going to keep going. It’s about training at this level. We’re taking it over three seconds from this morning, so what can we do with a few years, even months? It would be cool to watch, and even be a part of.”

Three of these teams – McMillan, McGeever and Sloan – set a new Irish Senior Record in this event in the long distance running (50m pool) format at the LEN European Aquatics Championships in May – the performance earned Ireland their first place at the Men’s Olympics. relay swimming, and the first Olympic swimming relay of any kind in 49 years.

Ireland’s next final will be held on Monday afternoon as Mona McSharry of Sligo has set a fifth Irish Senior Record to finish third overall in the 100m Breaststroke Semi-Finals.

Mona McSharry said: “It wasn’t the best race. I thought the first 25 games weren’t great and since then it’s been a bit of a mess. Now, the timing isn’t bad, that’s a good thing. I can improve things and hopefully the timing will drop again tomorrow. ”

Also on Sunday afternoon, Danielle Hill finished 13th in the 50m Backstroke Semi-Final, improving her warm-up time from 27.17 to 26.88 – just 0.14 from her Irish Senior Record. This is his first Semi-Final in this Championship and he has one match remaining – the 50m Freestyle – which starts with a warm-up on Monday morning.

Monday morning’s warm-up also featured 400m Individual Silver Medal Winner Ellen Walshe in the 200m Individual Medley and 100m Butterfly, relay star Jack McMillan in the 100m Freestyle and Irish Senior Record Holder Daniel Wiffen in the 1500m Freestyle.

All actions can be followed via fina.org.