Gold medals for granddaughter of Skryne

A scion of a well-known Skryne family recently visited her relatives in Meath with some special pieces of gold from the recent European Junior Swimming Championships in Prague. Grainne Murphy, granddaughter of Skryne native Christy Murphy, lives outside New Ross, Wexford, and recently returned from the European competitions. She made a special visit to St Elizabeth's Nursing Home, Athboy, where her 93 year-old great grandmother, Nancy Murphy, was delighted to see her and the medals. Last month, in Prague, she became the first ever Irish swimmer to win a European Junior gold medal. In fact, she won three of them and broke the long-standing European 400m individual medley record of multiple Olympic and world champion Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine, world female swimmer of the year 2004, in doing so. She added 200m and 800m medley golds, and her bronze in the 1,500m freestyle was notable too, as she swam the final just an hour after breaking that 400m medley record. The 16 year-old removed one of Michelle Smith's records from the books when she beat the time with which the Dubliner won her gold medal in the 200m individual medley at the Atlanta Olympics. She is a swimmer of much promise and showed her range by breaking the Irish 1,500m freestyle record at the recent World Championships in Rome as well.