McSharry and Shortt advance to semi-finals in Doha

Sligo swimmer McSharry, who placed fifth in the 100m Breaststroke final on Tuesday, came out fighting this morning with a swim of 2:24.82, to win her 200m heat and secure the second seed for this afternoon’s semi-final.

Thu, 15 Feb, 2024 - 09:38

Following Daniel Wiffen’s gold medal swim on Wednesday night, Irish swimmers continued their good form with both Mona McSharry and John Shortt progressing from heats to semi-finals.

Sligo swimmer McSharry, who placed fifth in the 100m breaststroke final on Tuesday, came out fighting with a swim of 2:24.82, to win her 200m heat and secure the second seed for Thursday afternoon’s semi-final.

McSharry’s time was just .32 of a second off her 2023 Irish record of 2:24.50.

Speaking after her race McSharry said: "I’m really happy, you know that’s definitely my best morning swim ever and my second-best time, so it makes me really excited.

"The 200’s a tough one to put together and I’m happy that I was able to step up this morning and put together a good race and I think maybe the frustration from the 100m kind of pushed me to want to get over the hurdle of the 200m hurting and swim fast."

While McSharry is already qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in the 100m breaststroke, the 23-year-old will need to achieve the Olympic Qualification Time of 2:23.91 to ensure she can swim the 200m breaststroke in Paris.

"Put my head down and that’s the goal (OQT), so anything else after that is going to be a great benefit, I’m only a second out with that swim so hopefully I can just chip a little bit away tonight’"

The Women’s 200m Breaststroke Final will take place at 5.19pm (Irish time).

John Shortt, who turned 17 last week, was impressive in the 200m backstroke, advancing to his first senior international semi-final. Shortt touched in 1:59.27, just outside his Irish record of 1:58.63.

Elsewhere, Eoin Corby and Victoria Catterson had top twenty finishes in their events on day five in Doha.

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