IRELAND’S Mona McSharry finished fifth in the final of the 100m breaststroke at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha yesterday.
The 23-year-old touched in 1:06.42, just half a second outside of the medals. China’s Qianting Tang won gold in 1:05.27.
‘’I’m gutted,’’ said McSharry afterwards. ‘’I just felt like It was there, within my reach, I just didn’t have it today and that’s really tough to deal with, just back to the drawing board and keep working, I guess.
‘’I think the most important thing is not coming away from this distraught or disheartened, and trying to use it to my advantage rather than thinking I’m not capable, and that’s probably going to be the hardest part.
McSharry returns to the pool tomorrow for the heats of the 200m breaststroke, where she will be seeking to secure an Olympic qualification time of 2:23.91.
Earlier yesterday, Daniel Wiffen progressed to the 800m freestyle final, while Victoria Catterson and Darragh Greene secured top 20 places in their respective events on the third day of racing at the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar.
Following a seventh-place finish in the 400m freestyle on Sunday, Wiffen secured a place in his second final, in one of his favoured events, the 800m freestyle.
The Magheralin man, European record-holder in the event in 7:39.19, touched second in his heat and ranks second overall behind Italy’s Luca de Tullio (7:46.42) in 7:46.90 ahead of today’s final (4.02pm Irish time).
‘’I did try not to go too hard,’’ said Wiffen.
‘’I mean it’s not a stacked field here, so doing the 800m is trying to go as slow as possible to still make it back.
‘’I knew it was going to be tight and I knew exactly what pace the others were going, so I didn’t want to leave it to chance in the heats, top two was what we wanted.’
Looking ahead to the final, Wiffen added: ‘’I’m looking forward to it, getting into my preferred schedule now, the 800m and 1,500m, so yeah I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a great race.’’
Catterson swam under the two-minute mark for the third time in her career in the 200m freestyle heats. The National Centre Dublin swimmer, who holds the Irish record at 1:59.74, was right at her best, touching sixth in her heat in 1:59.75. That placed her 19th overall, moving her up seven places in the rankings and seeing her break into the top 20 at a World Aquatics Championships for the first time.
Greene returned to the pool for his final individual event of the championships, the 50m breaststroke. Clocking 27.76, Greene was 18th overall, missing a semi-final place by just .14 of a second.
