Sport

Mona McSharry almost matches her Irish record as she storms into 50m breaststroke final

Swimmer moved up four ranking places to qualify in seventh place after swimming 30.90

Ireland’s Mona McSharry. Photograph: Andrea Staccioli/Inpho
Ireland’s Mona McSharry. Photograph: Andrea Staccioli/Inpho
Trish Mayon
Tue Aug 16 2022 - 18:47

Mona McSharry stormed into the 50m breaststroke final on the penultimate night of swimming, while Clare Cryan has finished in 11th place in the final of the 1M Springboard on the opening day of diving, at the European Championships in Rome.

McSharry moved up four ranking places, from 11th, to qualify for tomorrow’s 50m breaststroke final in seventh place in 30.90, just .03 of a second off her Irish record.

The Sligo swimmer makes it three finals from three breaststroke events at these championships, where she finished fifth in the 100m and seventh in the 200m.

Top qualifier and previous world record holder in the event Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania swam under her 2013 world record of 29.48 touching in 29.44, while the current world record holder Benedetta Pilato (29.30) of Italy will be the second seed for the final in 29.85.

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The final takes place on Wednesday at 5.05pm.

In diving, Clare Cryan had advanced from this morning’s preliminaries in eighth place with 230.40 points, with just an hour between the preliminaries and the final, and scorching conditions at the Foro Italico, the 28-year-old almost matched her score finishing with 227.75 points in 11th place.

Italy topped the podium with gold and bronze from Elena Bertocchi (264.25) and Chiara Pellacani (259.05) while Sweden’s Emma Gullstrand claimed silver with 259.65 points.

Cryan returns for the 3M Springboard on Friday.

Tomorrow, the final day of swimming takes place with Grace Hodgins, Finn McGeever and Liam Custer all swimming the 400m freestyle. In diving, Ciara McGing and Tanya Watson take to the boards for the 10M Platform Preliminaries.

Day 6 Results

Men 50m Freestyle Max McCusker 23.58 (62nd)

Shane Ryan 23.08 (50th)

Women 50m Breaststroke Mona McSharry 31.41 (13th) SF 30.90 (7th)

Men 200m IM Eoin Corby 2:05.78 (18th)

Liam Custer 2:06.66 (22nd)

Women 1M Springboard Clare Cryan 230.40 (8th) F 227.75 (11th)

Day 7 Schedule

Women 400m Freestyle Grace Hodgins

Men 400m Freestyle Finn McGeever, Liam Custer

Women 50m Breaststroke Final Mona McSharry

Women 10M Platform Ciara McGing, Tanya Watson