Brady and Ni Riain claim silver medals in Kocaeli

Dearbhaile Brady and Roisin Ni Riain both claimed silver to secure Team Ireand's first medals at the World Para Swimming European Championships in Kocaeli.

Feeny native Brady finished second in the 200m individual medley (SM6) final, while Ni Riain was second to finish in the 100m freestyle (S13).

Brady made a flying start to her final and led at the 50m mark, but slipped back into second where she remained, finishing in a time of

3:20.78 behind winner, Verena Schott of Germany and over five seconds ahead of third-place Spaniard Aitana Estrada Chavez.

"I feel quite good," Brady said afterwards.

"It was the first event, so I just wanted to start off by getting into racing. I was quite nervous, so I'm happy with how it went.

"I think it's about taking it a day at a time. Competition started two days ago and I was training throughout, so it's nice to be racing.

"I think this year was just about getting more training and consistency. It's nice to see that there's now a positive side coming out of it all. I'm really happy with how it went today."

Ni Riain finished in 1:01.85, just 0.31 seconds behind Italy's Carlotta Gilli, having been in fourth at the turn, but a strong finish saw her reach the podium.

After the opening 50 metres, Ní Riain sat in fourth position at the turn and it was from there, the 22-year-old increased her stroke rate and stormed home to touch the wall in a new lifetime best of 1:00.52, securing the European silver medal. Ní Riain finished just 0.31 seconds behind Italy's Carlotta Gilli, who claimed gold in 1:00.21.

"I'm really, really happy with that swim," the 22-year-old who represents National Centre Limerick said.

"I knew I was capable of a swim like that, and I also knew I was capable of a time like that for a while now.

"This is my first time racing the 100m freestyle at a major international championship, so I didn't really know what to expect. It's my first tapered 100m freestyle and everything like that, so I knew that if I executed it correctly, there was a good swim in me, so I'm so happy."

Lisburn's Deaten Registe finished fourth in the 100m breaststroke (SB14) with a time of 1:08.36 to finish fourth, just 0.29 seconds behind Ukraine's Vasyl Krainyk who claimed bronze.