McClements wins historic bronze at Commonwealth Games

Barry McClements won Northern Ireland's first ever swimming medal at the Commonwealth Games on Friday night, taking bronze in the S9 100m backstroke final.

Going off in lane two for the final, the Paralympian was ranked outside of the medals in fifth place with a best time of 1:05.76.

However a brilliant swim from the Newtownards man, in a personal best of 1:05.09, saw him earn third and claim a first international medal.

The race was won by Australia’s Tomothy Hodge in 1:01.88 with New Zealand’s Jesse Reynolds claiming silver in 1:03.65.

Earlier, Daniel Wiffen came agonisingly close to making the podium when he finished fourth in the 400m freestyle final, missing out on bronze by just 0.13 of a second.

An incredible effort from Wiffen saw him swim a second Irish record on Friday, coming home in 3:46.62, behind three Australians, who had a clean sweep of the podium.

On Friday morning, Wiffen placed himself as the top seed for the final in 3:47.43, knocking over a second off his own Irish record of 3:48.75 set in April this year.

Elijah Winnington won gold in 3:43.06 ahead of team-mates Sam Short (3:45.07) and Mack Horton (3:46.49).

Wiffen returns to the pool on Tuesday for his main event, the 1500m freestyle.

Having broken a long-standing Irish record in the 200m freestyle heats on Friday morning in 1:59.86, Victoria Catterson swam her third fastest time ever in the event clocking 2:00.65 for eighth overall.

Catterson will likely be back in the pool for the 4x100m freestyle relay.

On Saturday Jack McMillan, Danielle Hill and Mollie McAlorum make their Birmingham Games debuts.

McMillan will compete in the 200m freestyle, Hill in the 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke and McAlorum and Davison in the 50m freestyle. Northern Ireland will