- Andrew Bree
Andrew Bree (born
16 March 1981 ) is abreaststroke swimmer fromHelen's Bay ,Northern Ireland .He became the first Irish person to win a medal at the European SC Championships at the National Aquatic Centre,
Dublin in December 2003. He did this by coming in second in the 200 m breaststroke, his premier event. His home club is Ards and he currently trains inTennessee , USA.Bree failed to qualify for the
2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. However, he qualified for the2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. There he equalled the 200 m LC breaststroke record and was placed fifth. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/commonwealth_games/results/4783206.stm BBC News] ]Beijing 2008 Olympics
Bree qualified for the
2008 Summer Olympics at the 2008 US National Swimming Championships in Indiana and swam a new personal best time and Irish record of 2.13.14 in the 200 m breaststroke. At the British Swimming Championships in June 2008 he swam the 100 mbreaststroke in a time of 1:01.83 which allowed him to swim the 100 m breaststroke at the Olympics also.At the Beijing Olympics, Andrew swum in heat 5, lane 2 [http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics2008/2008/0808/breea.html] . He planned on swimming the 100 m just to see if he was sprinting well before his main event, the 200 m breaststroke. Bree performed very well and ended up finishing 2nd in his heat in a time of 1.01.76, a new Irish record. Bree finished 30th out of 63 and was pleased with the result. [http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics2008/2008/0809/breeandrew.html] In the 200 m breaststroke heats he won his heat in a time of 2.10.91, smashing his own Irish Record by over 2 seconds. He qualified 12th for the semi-finals. Bree finished 5th in the semi-final, breaking his Irish record with a time of 2.10.16. However he missed out on a spot in the final by less than 0.2 of a second. [http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics2008/2008/0812/breean.html]
References
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