Mona McSharry has secured a place overnight in the semi final of the 200m Breaststroke on the fifth day of racing at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. McSharry has already secured Olympic qualification and was fifth in Tuesday’s final of the 100m Breaststroke.
The Sligo woman, swimming in the third heat, went out quickly and was first at the 100m turn, her competitors began to catch her in the second 100m with the USA’s Kate Douglas the fastest qualifier from the heat in 2:25.50. McSharry would finish fifth in 2:26.59 and qualifies in sixteenth place overall.
Speaking after the race McSharry said ‘Feeling pretty good, it felt relatively comfortable for a 200m in the morning so that’s kind of exciting, hopefully I can build on that tonight and go faster. I feel like the smallest tweaks in the 200m can make a world of difference, so it would just be nice to play around with that tonight.’
The Women’s 200m Breaststroke Semi-Final takes place this afternoon at 1:19pm.
In the Men’s 200m Breaststroke Darragh Greene was just shy of making the semi-final. Greene won his heat in 2:12.21, finishing in eighteenth place overall. Greene is back in action on Sunday for the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay.
16-year-old John Shortt made his senior international debut in the Men’s 200m Backstroke. Shortt, from Galway, came home under the two-minute mark in 1:59.79 for twenty second place overall. The 200m Backstroke was Shortt’s only event of the Championships, but the National Centre Limerick and Bluefin swimmer will continue preparations in Japan for the LEN European U23 Swimming Championships taking place in Dublin from August 11th – 13th.
Victoria Catterson had a solid performance in the 100m Freestyle touching in 55.56, just outside her personal best of 55.21. Catterson returns to the pool on Sunday for the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay.
Yesterday afternoon Daniel Wiffen showed his world class abilities finishing fourth in the World Championships 800m Final in a new European Record, the Magheralin man now the holder of both the long (50m) and short (25m) course European records.
In an incredible final Wiffen was just .52 away from bronze finishing in 7:39.19, taking almost five seconds off his Irish Record of 7:43.81 set in yesterday’s heat, and .08 of a second off Italian Gregoria Paltrinieri’s European record of 7:39.27 set at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. The 22-year-old is now the number nine all time performer in the event.
A delighted Wiffen commented ‘It was a good race, I’m really happy with the personal best and really looking forward to the 1500m Freestyle later in the week, but that race was great to be part of. Missing the podium, you know; I came into this, and I just wanted to be better than last year, and I’ve done that by a lot so I’m happy enough.’
It’s a golden age for men’s distance swimming and Wiffen is relishing being part of it ‘It’s so good, I’m happy there’s a race in that because I just love to race and that was definitely one of the best races I’ve ever had, and I loved every minute of it, I’m looking forward to what’s next.’
