Following a great swim in the heats of the 200 Freestyle in the Charlotte UltraSwim Grand Prix in North Carolina, USA, Ryan Harrison, City of Derry’s International swimmer now training at University of Tennessee, found himself in fourth place in the eight man final of the 200M Freestyle.

 The other finalists in the world class line up included Olympian gold medallists Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay. Ryan was the youngest swimmer in the final but remained undeterred to produce the best swim of his career to finish in fifth place achieving the fastest 200m freestyle qualifying time by a Northern Ireland swimmer for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. He also qualified for this summer’s European Swimming Championships.This is a massive step forward for the young swimmer and augers well for his future in his chosen sport.

"I'm thrilled to get that time," Ryan said. "It feels great to get that weight off my shoulders. I can't wait to get on with the meet and swim fast."

Ryan came up just short in the preliminary round when he swam to a one minute 51 seconds time, just shy of the one minute 50.3 seconds time needed to qualify. In the final however he booked his ticket for the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August with a splendid 1 min 49.9secs, well inside the time needed.

Published 18th May 2010