Bree misses Olympic time

Andrew Bree will try again in Scotland next weekend

Northern Ireland swimmer Andrew Bree narrowly failed to get the Olympic Games 200m breaststroke standard in the US on Saturday.

Bree produced an improvement on recent performances but his time of 2:14.67 was still .47 outside the Athens mark.

He will have a last chance next weekend at the Scottish Championships to achieve the standard.

If Bree fails to get the mark next weekend, he could find himself missing out on the Games.

Swim Ireland would still be likely to nominate him for Athens but the Olympic Council of Ireland would have the final say on whether the Helen's Bay man would compete in the Greek capital.

Bree's personal best set in 2002 is .20 outside he Athens standard.

Last December, his Olympic preparations looked well on course when he claimed a superb silver medal at the European Short Course Championships in Dublin.

However, since then he has been unable to translate that short course form into long course results.