Castlebar's Nicholas Quinn will join Fiona Doyle, Shane Ryan and diver Oliver Dingley in going forward for selection for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games having gone under the FINA (International Swimming Federation ) Olympic A time in Eindhoven on Sunday last. Quinn swam an impressive 2:11.24 in the 200m breaststroke, almost half a second under the qualification time of 2:11.66. The Castlebar native who trains and studies at the University of Edinburgh progressed to Sunday’s final in 2:13.27, just off his personal best of 2:13.04, but a commanding performance in the final saw him smash that time to claim gold and a ticket to Rio.
“I’m delighted, it’s such a huge relief to get out there and make the A time the first time of asking.” Quinn commented “That was my aim since September from when I got back in after the summer, I targeted this meet in Eindhoven to have a crack at that time and I’m just delighted to get it done, now I can get back into hard training and get ready for the summer.”
Quinn had won gold in the 100m breaststroke on Friday in another personal best of 1:00.94, giving him the confidence to know that the 200m breaststroke time was well within reach. “I was debating not even racing the 100m event a few weeks ago as the 200m has been my focus, but then I wanted to go out and have a swim before the main one and I was delighted I did. It gave me the confidence to know that I was in form, so after that it was just a case of staying relaxed until Sunday and getting ready as best I could, I knew I was swimming well so I knew I was capable of the time.”
Quinn turns his focus toward the European Championships in London in May. “I’m straight back into training now, I just want to get my head down and more work done, there’s some technical things I can keep improving on, I want to put myself in the best possible position come Rio to really see what I can do, Europeans are coming up in a few weeks and that will be about race practice and tactics with the end goal being Rio.”
