Team Ireland swimmer Shane Ryan has qualified for the final of the 50m Backstroke after setting a new Irish Record in the pool at the World University Games in Taipei this afternoon.

After qualifying second fastest from this morning’s heats a berth in the final was well within the sights of the Pennsylvania State University student and his time of 24.97 saw him earn top seeding in the final tomorrow and he became the first Irish swimmer to go under 25 seconds in the event.

Ryan missed out on a medal in the 100m final on Monday finishing 0.18 of a second behind the bronze medal. The final is scheduled to take place on Wednesday August 23rd at 1.40pm Irish time and will be streamed live on FISU Live Streaming.

Nicholas Quinn (University of Edinburgh) was unlucky to miss out on a spot in the final of the 200m Breaststroke as he was shaded out by 0.36 of a second in his semi-final after swimming 2.12.76, Brendan Hyland (Dublin City University) was placed 13th overall in the 200m Butterfly after swimming 1.59.26 in his semi-final. Darragh Greene (University College Dublin) won his heat in the 200m Breaststroke but his time of 2.16.35 did not see him through to the semi-finals and Rory McEvoy (University of Limerick) swam 26.96 in the 50m Backstroke heats.

Along with Shane Ryan’s final tomorrow, Jordan Sloan (Ulster University) and Curtis Coulter (Queen’s University Belfast) swim in the heats of the 100m freestyle, while Jack Ffrench (Maynooth University) is in action in the preliminaries of the 3m Springboard.