Ellen Quirke announces retirement from swimming

Commonwealth Games swimmer Ellen Quirke has announced her retirement from swimming.

The Capital club swimmer has been based in the United States for the past four years studying at and swimming for Texas A & M University.

After a difficult past few years in her swimming career dealing with injury Quirke believes this is the right time for her to move on to the next stage of her life and will allow her to focus on her remaining year of study at Texas A & M.

In 2014 Quirke qualified for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games as part of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team in fairytale fashion at the New Zealand Open Championships.

Quirke was also part of the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships team that competed on the Gold Coast and the 2014 Oceania Championship team that competed in Auckland.

She had previously represented New Zealand at the 2008 Oceania Championships and the same year competed at the 2^nd FINA World Youth Championships.

In 2009 Quirke was a member of the Junior Pan Pacific Championships team and the Trans-Tasman Tri Series team.

Swimming New Zealand thanks Quirke for her positive contributions to swimming and wishes her all the best for the future.

CAPTION: Ellen Quirke (third from left) with Samantha Lee, Samantha Lucie-Smith and Laura Quilter after qualifying in the 4x100m free for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.