World Championship bronze for James Scully
Ratoath man James Scully won a bronze medal this week at the Paralympic Swimming World Championships in Montreal, Canada for his first ever International medal in the final of the 200m Freestyle S6 with a swim of 2 minutes and 58 seconds.
He went into the final in the bronze medal position in a time of 3:00.17 following the morning heats, and then improved his time and maintained the place in the final finishing behind Roy Perkins (2:45.61) of the USA.
World and Paralympic Champion in the event Daniel Dias retained his title in 2 minutes and 27 seconds.
Following the Bronze medal win Scully said “I’m over the moon, it’s absolutely brilliant, the time was a bit off what I swam in London but I got the medal and I’m delighted.”
He competed at London 2012 with distinction, swimming a personal best of 2.53:03 to finish a close fifth in his 200m freestyle final.
Prior to that, James claimed an impressive fourth-place finish in the same event at the 2010 World Championships in Eindhoven, just a year after failing to make the squad for the 2009 IPC European Championships.
In 2011, James continued his progress with another fourth place in the 200m Freestyle at the IPC European Championships, missing out on bronze by a hand touch. His efforts were recognised when he won Swim Ireland’s “2011 Disability Swimmer of the Year Award”.
In searching for that elusive podium place, James combines twenty hours swim training a week with his stidies as a full-time Politics student at NUI Maynooth.
Conall Collier