Sligo’s Mona McSharry safely negotiated the first round heats of the women’s 100 metres breaststroke at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Monday morning.
Swimming in Heat 5, McSharry swam 1:06.49 to finish second – and qualfied third quickest overall for Monday afternoon’s semi-final.
McSharry is competing in three events this week in Doha but the 100m breaststroke is her strongest discipline.,
She finished fifth in last year’s World Championship final in Japan so is a realistic medal contender this week in Doha.
Speaking after her heat, McSharry – who holds the Irish record at 1:05.55 told Swim Ireland: ‘”’m happy, February is a weird time to be getting up and doing a world champs swim and I think it’s exciting to try and progress through the rounds and be as good as I can at this time of the year and then just build on that for the Summer.
“It was a good swim this morning, well-paced, just try and shave a little bit off each 50m and see what we can do.”
Her 100m breaststroke semi-final takes place on Monday at 4.33pm Irish time.
