McSharry Scorches New Irish Record to Book Olympic Final Place
Mona McSharry had the swim of her life in the 100m Breaststroke Semi-Final scorching a new Irish Record to book her place in Monday’s Olympic Games Final. The now two-time Olympic Finalist progresses as second seed.
McSharry posted her second fastest time ever in this morning’s heats in 1:05.74, lowering that to 1:05.51 this evening she took four hundredths of a second off her own Irish Record of 1:05.55 from the 2023 World Championships.
Swimming in the second semi-final McSharry was out in 30.96, slower than this morning’s 30.82, but a back half 34.55 was quicker than the 34.92 split this morning. The Sligowoman was second in that semi-final behind South Africa’s Tatjana Smith (1:05.00) while 2024 World Champion China’s Qianting Tang won the first semi-final in 1:05.83. World Record holder Lily King was third behind McSharry in 1:05.64.
A delighted McSharry spoke after the race ‘It was very good, I’m happy with that, progressing through the rounds, I can’t ask for anything better and I have a place in the Final, that was really the only job of the semis was to progress, so yeah I’m happy with that.’
On tomorrow’s race she said ‘I always love to say I think I can go faster, and you know that means pulling everything together and it being perfect and so sometimes that’s kind of hard but you know I’m just going to do the best that I can tomorrow and hopefully I can shave a bit more off that 1:05.’
The 100m Breaststroke Final takes place on Monday at 8.25pm.
On Monday morning, Daniel Wiffen makes his Paris debut and will be joined by Ellen Walshe and Danielle Hill making their second appearances. Walshe is up first in the 400m Individual Medley, an event in which she swam a new Irish Record of 4:37.18 last month. Danielle Hill, who became the first Irishwoman to break the minute mark in the 100m Backstroke in May, will swim that event with an entry time of 59.11. Daniel Wiffen will make his debut in the 800m Freestyle, an event in which he is the current World Champion. The European Record holder is the third fastest entrant on 7:39.19.
Results:
Women 100m Breaststroke Mona McSharry H 1:05.74 (3rd) SF 1:05.51 (2nd)
Monday 29th July Schedule
Women 400m IM Ellen Walshe 10.06 (H 2/2)
Women 100m Backstroke Danielle Hill 10.19 (H 3/5)
Men 800m Freestyle Daniel Wiffen 10.58 (H 4/4)
Women 100m Breaststroke Final Mona McSharry 20.25
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