Sligo’s Mona McSharry finished 15th quickest overall after Thursday’s semi-finals of the women’s 200 metres breaststroke at the World Swimming Championships in Japan.
Swimming in the faster heat 1, McSharry started strongly and was in the mix in fifth place at the 150m mark, but a charge from those around her saw McSharry finish seventh in 2:26.27, faster than her heat swim of 2:26.59 and up one place in the rankings.
Speaking after the race, McSharry said: “I’m confused, I need to see the splits and stuff before I can figure out what happened I guess. It felt better than this morning, but roughly the same time.
“’m quite happy with how I’m taking it out I think, so just look at the positives and hopefully build on it and this is just the first opportunity to qualify it (for Paris 2024), so hopefully I can get it before the Olympics rolls around.”
Tokyo Olympic Champion Tatijana Schoenmaker was the top qualifier from the semi-finals in 2:21.31.
The Grange woman still has the heats of the 50m breaststroke to come on Saturday.
