Following Bethany Firth’s medal-winning performance last night, which delivered Team NI’s first medal of the Games, Day 3 got underway with Emily Hughes and Grace Davison making a splash in the 100m Freestyle. Opening proceedings for Team NI in the heats, Emily Hughes continued to impress on her Commonwealth Games debut, finishing in a time of 56.71, just 0.09 seconds outside her entry time. Racing in the final heat of the event, Grace Davison touched in lane 6, finishing 4th in her heat with a time of 55.21, 0.8 seconds outside her lifetime best set back in April. Davison progresses through to tonight’s semi-final in 6th position, while Hughes narrowly misses out, finishing 21st overall.
Following the morning’s opening event, Adam Bradley made his second splash in the pool this week, racing the 50m Breaststroke. Entered with a time of 27.79, he stormed his way to the far end of the pool, smashing his previous lifetime best to set a new one in 27.57, securing his spot in tonight’s semi-final in 9th position.
Next into the water was Alana Burns-Atkin for the 100m Butterfly heats. The Banbridge swimmer, who trains out of the National Centre in Ulster, raced in heat 2 alongside Scottish swimmers Keanna McInnes and Ciara Schlosshan in an electric atmosphere. Swimming a well-controlled race, Alana touched in a time of 1:00.56, enough to secure her place in tonight’s semi-finals.
Finally, Barry McClements took to the blocks for the Men’s S9 100m Backstroke heats, entering the event ranked 2nd behind Timothy Hodge (AUS). With another calm and collected heat swim, McClements reached the final in 4th place, touching in 1:07.30, outside his entry time of 1:04.51. He returns this evening for the final of this event.
With finals ahead for Davison, Bradley, Burns-Atkin and McClements, Lottie Cullen will also join the action this evening for her 100m Backstroke final.