Shane Ryan Leads Irish Team for 2017 FINA World Championships

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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2016 Olympians Oliver Dingley, Shane Ryan and Nicholas Quinn will spearhead Swim Ireland’s biggest World Championships team since 2009 in Budapest in July. Seven athletes were announced today in the squad that will travel to Hungary for the FINA World Championships.

Dingley will be Ireland’s first diver at a World Championships in many years. The 23-year-old became Ireland’s first Olympic Diver last year in Rio in 68 years. He has been preparing for this year’s Worlds by competing in the FINA Diving World Series, an exclusive event for those that finished in the top eight at the Rio Games. Dingley will also have the opportunity to fine tune his dives at the LEN European Diving Championships in Ukraine in June along with Jack Ffrench.

Olympic 100m Backstroke semi-finalist Shane Ryan, recently finishing his senior year at Penn State University, comes back into the Irish fold and will look to convert his fantastic U.S. College form in Backstroke swimming into long course metres racing. Rio 2016 team mate Nicholas Quinn will compete in the Breaststroke events in Hungary.

After a number of outstanding performances at last month’s Irish Open Swimming Championships, National 100m, 200m and 400m Freestyle Champion Jordan Sloan is selected for Budapest. Sloan broke the Irish 100m and 200m Freestyle Records in April.

Mona McSharry and Conor Ferguson will have their primary focus with the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis in August, but will relish the opportunity to experience a senior World Championships and compete in the Breaststroke and Backstroke events respectively.

With a strong national focus towards qualifying at least one relay team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Ryan, Quinn and Sloan will be joined by Brendan Hyland to compete in the 400m Medley Relay at the Championships.

“It’s very exciting for us to be able to select what is a relatively large World Championships team for Ireland, a blend of international experience in the likes of Shane and Nicholas and exciting young talent in Mona and Conor,” Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd said. “To travel with a great group of individuals plus a relay into one of the World’s biggest events is a great start for us in our quest for success in Tokyo and we will of course also look forward to seeing Oliver compete off the boards after such a successful outing in Rio.”

Ryan, Quinn, Sloan and Hyland will also join a team of 12 selected by Student Sport Ireland for the World University Games in Chinese Taipei in August. They will be joined by UCD’s Darragh Greene and David Prendergast, Larne’s Conor Brines, National Centre (Limerick) athlete Rory McEvoy and 100m Freestyle Irish Open medalists Calum Bain of Cookstown and Curtis Coulter of Ards.

For the first time in history, Ireland will have two divers at the World University Games, with both Ffrench and Natasha McManus hitting qualification scores in the 1 metre and 3 metre Springboard events to qualify.

FINA World Diving & Swimming Championships, 15^th – 30^th July, Budapest, Hungary

Swimming

Athlete Club Home Coach

Jordan Sloan Bangor Paul Dennis

Shane Ryan NAC Tim Murphy

Nicholas Quinn Castlebar Chris Jones

Mona McSharry Marlins Grace Meade

Conor Ferguson Bangor Alan Bircher

Brendan Hyland National Centre (Dublin) & Tallaght Dave Malone

Diving

Athlete Club Home Coach

Oliver Dingley Shamrock Diving Club Damian Ball

Team Staff

Team Leader Jon Rudd

Head Coach (Swimming) National Head Coach (TBC)

Head Coach (Diving) Damian Ball

Assistant Coach (Swimming) Grace Meade

World University Games, 20^th – 27^th August, Taipei, Chinese Taipei

Swimming

Athlete Club Home Coach

Shane Ryan Penn State University Tim Murphy

Nicholas Quinn University of Edinburgh Chris Jones

Jordan Sloan University of Ulster, Jordanstown Paul Dennis

Brendan Hyland Dublin City University Dave Malone

Rory McEvoy University of Limerick Lars Humer

Conor Brines Queens University Belfast Peter Hill

Darragh Greene University College Dublin Earl McCarthy

David Prendergast University College Dublin Earl McCarthy

Calum Bain University of Stirling Bradley Hay

Curtis Coulter Queens University Belfast Nelson Lindsay

Diving

Athlete Club Home Coach

Jack Ffrench Maynooth University Damian Ball

Natasha MacManus Princeton University Drew Livingstone

Team Staff

Head Coach (Swimming) Lars Humer

Head Coach (Diving) Damian Ball

Assistant Coach (Swimming) Paul Dennis

LEN European Diving Championships, 11^th – 18^th June, Kiev, Ukraine

Athlete Club Home Coach

Jack Ffrench Shamrock Diving Club Damian Ball

Oliver Dingley Shamrock Diving Club Damian Ball

Team Staff

Head Coach Damian Ball

The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Swim Ireland. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact newsmaster@swimmingworld.com.

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Thomas A. Small

7 years ago

Congratulations