London 2012 Paralympic Gold Medalists Darragh McDonald and Bethany Firth will head up a six strong team of swimmers who will compete at the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) Swimming World Championships at Parc Jean Drapeau in Montreal, Canada starting on Monday next 12^th August and will run to the 19^th August.

Darragh McDonald will be hoping to defend his 400m Freestyle title which he won in London on the first day of the Championships; the 19 year old will also compete in the 50m and 100m Freestyle events.

The team’s youngest member, Bethany Firth, who claimed Ireland’s first Gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games will also be going for Gold in the 100m Backstroke. The 17 year old claimed Gold in London with a time of 1:08.93 and has since improved this time with a 1:05.76 Bronze medal win at Swim Ireland’s National Championships in April.

Ellen Keane will compete in five events over the 7 days of competition and will be the first Irish swimmer in action on Day 1 in the 100m Freestyle. The Dubliner has added the 50m and 100m Freestyle events to the 100m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley events she competed in at the Paralympic Games.

James Scully will also have a busy schedule at the Championships. The 20 year old will swim the 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle as well as the 50m Backstroke, Scully’s best result at the Games was a fifth place finish in the 200m Freestyle. He will have tough competition against Brazil’s Daniel Dias who won 6 Individual Gold Medals in his class in London.

Limerick’s Jonathan McGrath will swim the 400m Freestyle on day 3, whilst Laurence McGivern will have to wait until the final day to compete in his 100m Backstroke event. McGivern was 8^th in the Final of the event in London.

The team is led by Head of Paralympic Swimming, Dave Malone, supported by National Paralympic Swim Coach Jim Laverty.  Speaking ahead of the Championships, Malone said: “It’s great to be back into major Championship action for the first time since London which was a huge success for Ireland.  With the six team members all having competed at the London Games, they are not fazed about competing on the World stage and I’m confident of some stellar performances from the team during the championships.”

For the first time ever, Ireland will enter a Relay Team into an IPC Swimming World Championships. Darragh McDonald, James Scully, Jonathan McGrath and Laurence McGivern will swim the Men’s 4x 100m Freestyle Team Relay on Day 4 (15^th August).