Ireland’s Grainne Murphy has had the week of her life at the European Championships in Budapest.

Murphy won silver in the 1500 metres freestyle recording a blistering time of 16.02.29, cutting a further eight seconds off the Irish record set in the heats and the second fastest time in the world this year.

At just seventeen years old, she has won Ireland’s tenth medal in European Championships.

The distinction of the world’s fastest swimmer in the event goes to the gold medal winner, Lotte Friis of Denmark, who doubled up by winning in 15:59.13 to add the 1,500m title to the 800m freestyle gold she won on Thursday. Spain’s Erika Garcia took the bronze medal in 16:05.08.

The Irish teenage swimming sensation never really looked like catching Friis, who showed all her experience to take the gold, but the 17-year-old Wexford native was in silver medal position from a long way out and Garcia was content to take the bronze.

On Saturday night as she stood on the victory rostrum at a packed stadium at Margaret Island and took richly deserved plaudits for her silver medal performance in the longest event in the pool.

It was Murphy’s third final of the week after taking seventh in the 400m individual medley on Monday and fourth in the 800m freestyle on Thursday. She later bowed out of the 400m freestyle heats, clearly exhausted from the previous races.

“I was still quite tired after the 1,500 metres final but I got in and gave it my best shot. I’m happy with the result even though I didn’t make the final, but it was still a great week,” said Murphy after the 400 metres freestyle heats. “I think every part of me is just tired at this stage and a good sleep is what I need. We set up a demanding programme for the week to see what events would be my best and I then withdrew from the others. Overall the week was great going from one step to the next and progressing throughout.

“I learnt a lot from the 400 metres individual medley and 800 metres freestyle finals and going into the 1,500 metres decider I had two finals behind me just to give me the experience to take the silver.

“My parents were here to see me which was great. I think my Dad was the more excited; my mam is the calmer one. But I got support from home and the reaction was great not only for me but for the other Irish swimmers as well and that can only be good for swimming in Ireland.

“We are only a small team, but we support each other; there is a super team spirit and I want to thank them as well as Swim Ireland and the Irish Council and my coach Ronald (Claes) for all he has done for me.”

Claes is the Limerick high performance centre coach at the University Arena Pool and is a former Belgium swimmer and coach. He was formerly head coach of the Flemish swimming federation and for the Royal Belgian swimming federation at the 2005 European Youth Olympic festival and at the 2006 and 2007 European Junior Championships before taking over as the coach in Ireland’s first high performance centre. The second was added recently at the NAC in Dublin under Paul Donovan, the former coach of Trojan.

The Irish high performance swimming programme is overseen by Dubliner Peter Banks, one time coach to American Brooke Bennett, the three-time Olympic gold medallist.

“It shows that we can have medallists come out of our programme and as we have set up high performance centres in Dublin and Limerick, the work there is paying off,” said a delighted Banks.

“We hope that this is the start of many young swimmers getting excited about the sport of swimming.

“She is a three-time junior European champion and now all of a sudden she is medalling at senior level and much credit must go to her coach, Ronald, for setting out and implementing a programme for her.

“Maybe she was a little better than we thought she was going to be, but I was watching her in our training camp in Slovenia and the swims she put in there.

“I was very impressed. I have coached distance swimmers and she was doing phenomenal things in the water so I was glad to see that transfer into the competition pool.”

Messages of congratulations poured in from the President’s office, from Mary Hannifan, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, and the swimming community in Ireland as Murphy announced her presence on the world stage.

Murphy confirmed after the race that she will contest the European Short Course (25 metre) championships in Eindhoven in November, before making a decision about the world championships, which take place in Dubai in December.

Barry Murphy, Ireland’s other competitor, finished a disappointing eighth in the final of the men’s 50m breaststroke.

The 22-year-old Dubliner got a great start and was in third place at the 25m mark, but tightened-up in the last few metres recording a time of 27.96 seconds, .36 of a second shy of his semi-final time.

Fabio Scozzoli of Italy won the gold in 27.38 seconds with Dragos Agache of Romania second in 27.47 seconds and Lennart Stekelenburg of the Netherlands in bronze in 27.51 seconds.

Dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Dermot Weld will return this year to try to win the great race for a third time. The master Irish trainer has four horses in contention this year, with Rite Of Passage being tipped to come out in front. He also intends to bring back Profound Beauty, who ran fifth behind Viewed in the 2008 Melbourne Cup.

Renowned for helping turn the Melbourne Cup into a truly global event, Weld won the iconic race in 1993 with Irish horse Vintage Crop, the first overseas trained horse to win the Cup.

The only northern hemisphere trainer, Weld experienced Melbourne Cup victory again in 2002 with Irish horse Media Puzzle. This victory is now the subject of the movie The Cup, which is currently being filmed around Melbourne.

One of the most revered trainers in the world, Dermot Weld holds the record for the greatest number of winning horses in Ireland.

An official launch for the Melbourne Cup was held in Flemington, where a stellar line up of racing royalty, including Weld, assisted the proceedings. The nominations are now closed and the countdown is on to the milestone 150th race. which will take place on Tuesday, November 2 this year.

It’s steadily gaining notoriety as the greatest day on the Australian sporting and social calendar and Dale Montieth, CEO of Victoria Racing Club, has said that ticket sales are already up 150% compared to this time last year.

On race day, Weld will be joined by many international trainers who have accepted the challenge to try to win the $6 million race. The competition is expected to be harder that ever with 45 European, Japanese and Hong Kong raiders entered.

The only notable international absentee is Irish trainer Aidan OBrien, whose emerging stayer, Age Of Acquarius, broke down at Goodwood Cup in England and has been retired to stud.

Weld made the promise to contend the race immediately after Rite Of Passage scored a famous win in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup 4000m at Royal Ascot early in June.

“I suppose we’ll have to take him to Melbourne now,” Weld said immediately after the six-year-old delivered his first success in England’s most famous staying race.

Interestingly, Rite Of Passage is owned by Dr Richard Lambe, an Irish research scientist whose daughter Kate is currently attending university in Melbourne. Weld’s son Mark said Dr Lambe was a regular visitor to Melbourne to see his daughter and was very keen to have a runner in the Melbourne Cup.

Mourners at Alex Higgins's funeral service. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The ‘people’s champion’ Alex Higgins was remembered at a service of thanksgiving in Belfast. Fellow snooker player and friend Jimmy White led the tributes to “Hurricane” Higgins but was overcome by emotion and needed help reading out his statement.

St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral was packed with 400 former players, friends and family, with thousands more outside paying their last respects.

Past and present stars of the game including Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty, Willie Thorne, Shaun Murphy and John Virgo attended.

Higgins, 61, died last month after a long battle with throat cancer and alcohol. He was a twice world champion from Northern Ireland who graced the green baize with flair and talent.

The statement from White said: “He was mind-blowing, he did things I’d never seen before,

“He was The Hurricane, I will miss him to the end.”

Higgins’ daughter Lauren added: “A million times I will cry, if love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.”

His sisters Anne and Jean sat at the front of the cathedral along with Lauren and son Jordan.

Ryan Thomas from Coronation Street, Northern Ireland ministers Nelson McCausland and Arlene Foster, Lord Mayor of Belfast Pat Convery and Olympic champion Dame Mary Peters were among dignitaries at the service.

A tearful White helped carry the coffin of the troubled snooker genius who was found dead in a flat in Belfast last month.

A floral tribute outside the church read: “The People’s Champion.”

Following a funeral in the family home in Roden Street in the south of the city, a cortege led by a horse drawn carriage wound its way through the centre of Belfast.

Hundreds who had gathered in the Sandy Row area, where Higgins grew up and died, applauded as the procession passed.

White added: “Only a year ago Alex was talking about playing again and coming on the road with me.

“It angers me that he never listened to anyone, close friends or family but that was Alex he was an individual, his own man, he was The Hurricane.”

He said: “I travelled the world with him and playing Alex wherever you played he always gave 100% no matter what the situation.”

White recounted an anecdote from a casino in Southampton where they had been drinking and gambling for a couple of days.They were in the toilet chatting and White sat on the sink – which came off the wall flooding the place.

Higgins confessed to the damage and the pair spent the day in police cells until it was paid for.

For his daughter Lauren there was just shock, hurt and anger.

“In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still. In my heart you hold a place that no-one could ever fill,” she said.

“It broke my heart to lose you but you didn’t go alone. For part of me went with you the day God took you home.”

Dean of Belfast Houston McKelvey was assisted during the service by Bishop of Down and Dromore Harold Miller. Mr McKelvey delivered the eulogy.

“Alex at a very young age encountered two of the greatest temptations possible – fame and fortune. “He found it difficult to cope with both. He was not the first to find this difficult and he certainly will not be the last,” he said.

He warned against judgmental comments on the life of the at times irascible champion, credited with creating the modern game but who famously had an explosive temper and whose drinking often attracted negative headlines.

“Many people – informed and ill informed – have commented publicly on Alex, his life and his lifestyle over the past few days,” Mr McKelvey said.

“It has been a media-fest fed by a public which turns, often like a shoal of piranha fish, from one personality to another.

“Since Alex’s death many have been judgmental despite the fact that there are few Irish families that I know of who don’t have their own ‘character’ to cope with in the family system. “The only difference being that their character was not quite so famous.”

He said a way to honour Alex Higgins’ memory was to donate to the cancer centre at the City Hospital, close to where the player was born.

Taking up the sport at the age of 11, he won the All-Ireland and Northern Ireland amateur championships in 1968.

After turning professional he became the youngest World Championship winner at his first attempt, beating John Spencer in 1972. The record was eventually beaten when 21-year-old Stephen Hendry claimed the trophy in 1990. Higgins claimed the title for a second time in 1982.

However he was banned from five tournaments and fined £12,000 in 1986 when he headbutted UK Championship tournament director Paul Hatherell.

In 1990 Higgins was banned for the rest of the season after he punched a tournament director at the World Championship.

He went through two divorces, from Cara Hasler and Lynn Higgins, and suffered years of ill health linked to heavy smoking. He earned £4 million during his career but was living in sheltered housing at the end.

He competed occasionally but his physical decline from cancer was evident.

He was buried at Carnmoney Cemetery on the outskirts of north Belfast.

Pic: onEdition/PA Wire

Irishman Ray Carroll is among a rowing crew who broke a 114-year-old record for crossing the North Atlantic from New York to the Isles of Scilly.

33-year-old Ray Carroll from Galway (pictured third from left) was one of four rowers who completed the challenging Atlantic voyage, which took them 43 days and 21 hours. Their time knocked 11 days off the 55-day record set by Norwegian fishermen George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen in 1896.

The other members of the Artemis North Atlantic Rowing Challenge are skipper Leven Brown (far right), 37, from Edinburgh, Don Lennox (left), 41, from Glasgow, and Livar Nysted (second from left), 39, from the Faroe Islands.

Carroll has rowed since the age of 11 and represented Ireland in a Junior World Championship, a European Championship and a World Student Games.

He trained as a marine engineer and sailed in the Merchant Navy for 12 years before becoming a ship manager with Irish Ferries in Dublin.

He was a member of the 2007/08 world record breaking crew with Brown and Lennox who smashed the Mid Atlantic crossing time in 33 days.

The new record-holders endured two false starts following bad conditions and technical issues, but successfully left New York on June 17 this year in their 23ft vessel named Artemis Investments.

During two months at sea, the team battled 10-metre waves, a bout of food poisoning and narrowly avoided crashing into fishing boats in 35-knot winds.

They managed to set a new 24-hour record of 118 miles on July 14, previously held at 117 miles by Brown and his team in La Mondiale on the Trade Winds route on January 3, 2008.

The four hope their efforts will have raised thousands of pounds for charity, with the money donated to be shared between The National Autistic Society, Help for Heroes, Jigsaw and Aware.

Mr Carroll described the conditions as testing and said he was now looking forward to relaxing.