Shane Ryan misses out on European Championship medal by agonising 0.02 seconds

IRELAND’S SHANE RYAN agonisingly missed out on another European Short Course Championship medal for his collection when he was out-touched in the 50m backstroke final on Wednesday.

Ryan, who won bronze over the distance at these championships in 2019, finished fifth in Otopeni, Romania.

But his time of 23.12 seconds was just 0.02 outside the bronze medal, which was shared by Italy’s Lorenzo Mora and Switzerland’s Thierry Bollin who finished in a dead heat in 23.10.

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France’s Mewen Tomac won gold in 22.84 ahead of Germany’s Ole Braunschweig (23.00).

Ryan, 29, said: “It’s always difficult when you come into a meet not rested, as you still have expectations and I know what I’m capable of.

“I will keep a strong mind about it and look at the bigger picture as we’re saying here, so on to bigger and better things.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Daniel Wiffen cemented his credentials in the 1500m freestyle as he qualified for tomorrow’s final with the fastest overall time (14:34.50).

The Magheralin man, who won Ireland’s first-ever European Short Course gold in the 400m freestyle on Tuesday, will be joined in the final by twin brother Nathan who swam a massive personal best of 14:39.34.

Daniel said: “My goal there was just to try and make it as easy as possible after last night and the toll it would have had on me — so as easy as possible to make it back, and I’m happy to be first and in lane four for the final.”

The 1500m freestyle final takes place at 5.04pm on Thursday.

Elsewhere, Tom Fannon set a new national record of 21.21 in the 50m freestyle semi-finals, and while that wasn’t enough for automatic qualification, Fannon will have a chance to swim off against three others tomorrow after there was a four-way tie for the second reserve spot for the final.

Ellen Walshe also returned to the water following her 400m individual medley bronze, finishing 10th in the 100m individual medley (1:00.11).