BALLINA’s Finn McGeever was on the Irish Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team which broke seven minutes for the first time.
They recorded a sixth place finish in the final of the FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships held at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The Championships are world swimming’s finale of 2021 and the culmination of the short course (25m pool) season.
McGeever, Jack McMillan, Jordan Sloan and Robbie Powell took 21 seconds off the Irish Senior Record to become the first Irish relay team to qualify for a World Championships Final in 28 years. The quartet, who train across Swim Ireland’s National Centres in Bangor, Dublin and Limerick, then knocked a further three seconds off in that Final to set the new standard at 6:59.54.
Three of this team – McMillan, McGeever and Sloan –set a new Irish Senior Record in this event in the long course (50m pool) format at the LEN European Aquatics Championships in May – the performance earned Ireland their first ever spot in a Men’s Olympic swimming relay event, and a first Olympic swimming relay of any kind in 49 years
A past pupil of St Anne’s in Killaloe, Finn was third in the water. Already 2021 has been memorable for him, achieving his first Irish Senior Record in 400m Freestyle in April, then helping set the Irish Senior Record for this event at the LEN European Aquatics Championships in May, before making his Olympic debut – again in this event – at Tokyo 2020.
He trains at the National Centre at the University of Limerick. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to get used to this. It’s really cool to be out in a World Final. This is my first individual senior meet too as I did the 400m Freestyle, so this is all new to me,” he reflected.
