Pain can sometimes bring out the best in people. Mona McSharry made absolutely no secret of her feelings after her first final appearance at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, so she’s gone and made a second one, this time in the 200m breaststroke.
Although considered her least favourite event compared to the 100m, in which she finished fifth in Tuesday’s final, and felt “gutted” afterwards, McSharry has now given herself another fighting chance of a medal by progressing to Friday evening’s (4.49pm Irish time) final ranked seventh fastest. It will be close.
Both of Thursday’s evening semi-finals inside the Aspire Dome left little room for error. McSharry finished third in the first of them, touching home in 2:25.13, behind the Canadian Sydney Pickrem, who won in 2:23.77, and Alina Zmushka from Belarus, competing under the neutral flag, who took second in 2:24.14.
At the halfway mark, McSharry was back in fifth, making that critical move up to third in the last 50m to seal her final place. As it transpired only the top three ended up progressing from the first semi-final.
In the second, four swimmers went faster, led home by the Dutch silver medal winner from the 100m breaststroke, Tes Schouten, who clocked 2:21.50. Then came Kate Douglass from the US, second in 2:23.17, the Czech swimmer Kristyna Horska the last qualifier in fifth place there, swimming 2:25.34.
“A little bit slower than what I swam this morning, but again one of my fastest races,” said McSharry. “And based on how I feel getting out of it, I feel like I put it well together, and the last 50m felt pretty strong.
“So I think tomorrow now, it’s just about having big guts, and push a little bit harder in that first 100m. All the pieces seem to be coming together now.
“But it took a little while, definitely [to get over the 100m breaststroke], I was very upset, but I just had to reframe, move on, and it was nice to have another event. I knew I had another job to do, and still have the 50m after this, so it’s nice to be moving forward.”
Suitably remotivated it seemed from the shorter event, McSharry had earlier come through the morning heats ranked second fastest of the lot, clocking 2:24.82, just .32 of a second off her 2023 Irish record of 2:24.50.
The 22-year-old Douglass, who last month posted a new American record of 2:19.30, has already won gold in the 200m medley, and Schouten also already has a medal to her name in this event, winning bronze last year in Fukuoka.
McSharry has something to aim for besides a medal, the Sligo swimmer also looking to secure a Paris qualification time in this event, to go with the 100m breaststroke. The 23-year-old will be eyeing the time 2:23.91 to book that place too.
“I’m excited, I say it time and time again, but the 200m is a tough one for me, just mentally,” she added. “But I feel like I approached it well today, so it’s just about trying to get some good rest now, come back tomorrow, and really try to hammer down that Olympic qualification, which would be amazing. And this is a really good opportunity to do it.
“And I think maybe the frustration from the 100m kind of pushed me to want to get over the hurting of the 200m, and swim fast. The 200s a tough one to put together and I’m happy that I was able to step up this morning as well and put together a good race.”
After Daniel Wiffen’s stunning gold medal performance in the 800m freestyle on Wednesday, McSharry won’t be short of inspiration either. Wiffen returns to the pool on Saturday morning for his heats of the 1,500m, after his 16 lengths of glory in the 800m, eyeing up that classic swimming distance double, and pocketing another $30,000 in prize money, which goes to every gold medal winner in the pool.
Not long after McSharry progressed to her second final, John Shortt, who only turned 17 last week, impressed again in the 200m backstroke, improving his own Irish record to 1:58.47.
From Roscam in Galway, Shortt broke the 1:58.63 which he set at the European Junior Championships last year. Now based at the National Centre in Limerick, he finished 14th overall in only his second senior international meet, his semi-final won by Hugo Gonzalez from Spain in 1:56.38
“I think that swim tonight properly showed what I can do,” he said. “And I’m just another inch closer to that Olympic time and I’ll have another crack at it in Dublin.
“But making my debut here is was a moment that I think I’ll hold in my heart forever. It was amazing, especially to see my family out there who have been amazing these past few months, I’ve moved to Limerick full time so they’ve all been unbelievable and it was so nice to show them a good swim out there tonight.”
Earlier Eoin Corby, also making his World Championships debut, was 17th overall in the men’s 200m breaststroke, missing the semi-final by just .38 of a second. The 22-year-old will be the first reserve for this Friday afternoon’s semi-final.
Victoria Catterson also secured her second top-20 finish of the week in the 100m freestyle, ending up 19th best after the morning’s heats, finishing in 55.44, to close out her World Championships.
Friday will see also debut swims at these championships from Max McCusker in the 100m butterfly and Tom Fannon in the 50m freestyle, while Maria Godden returns for the 200m backstroke. Olympic qualification is available across all three events.
