Max McCusker got Ireland's European Championships campaign off to a flying start in Rome this morning progressing to the semi-finals of the 50m butterfly, while Darragh Greene advanced in the 100m breaststroke.Irish 50m butterfly record holder McCusker was just off his best time of 23.44 touching fifth in his heat in 23.61 and progresses in 14th place overall.Greene, swimming his first international meet since the Tokyo Olympics, clocked 1:00.75 for third in his heat and will go into this evening’s semi-final in eighth place.Fresh from the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last week, Danielle Hill and Victoria Catterson both competed in heat four of the 100m Freestyle where the duo touched in 56.39 seconds for 22nd overall, which was not enough for a semi-final place.Sundays Wells’ Liam Custer and Trojan's Grace Hodgins both made their senior international debuts this morning.
The pair had already competed at the European Junior Championships earlier this summer.Custer, swimming the 400m individual medley was home in 4:31.43, while Hodgins won her 800m Freestyle heat in 8:57.87.Also competing this morning, Brendan Hyland was just a tenth of a second off his best time in the 50m butterfly in 24.19, his main event coming later in the week.