Eighth place finish for Ellen Walshe at the World Championships

EIGHTH PLACE: Ellen Walshe has finished eighth in the 200m Individual Medley final at the World Championship final. Pic:  Ian MacNicol/Sportsfile

Ellen Walshe has finished eighth in the 200m Individual Medley final at the World Championship final.

Two-time Olympian and 400m Individual Medley finalist in Paris, Walshe competed in her first World Championship final in the 50m pool.

Walshe set an Irish Record in the semi-final on Sunday with a time of 2:10.49 and finished eighth in a time of 2:11.57 in the final.

Canada's Summer McIntosh took gold, her second in as many days. 

Speaking on her eighth place finish in her first World Championships Walshe said "I think to be in my first world final tonight, like it’s a huge experience, out against some massive names in a 2IM, but yeah, a little bit disappointed, but sure, roll on to the next one."

Walshe is in the 200m Butterfly heats on Wednesday which she has been working towards this year. 

"I don’t really know where it’s going to be. I’ve never raced it internationally at this level, so I’m excited to kind of see where I can get, if it’s a semifinal or I’m not even sure, but yeah, I’m looking forward to it."

In the 100m Breaststroke semi-final Mona McSharry, who was top seed in 1:05.99, finished in sixth in a time of 1:06.33 and 11th overall and missed out on a final place by 0.16 of a second. 

McSharry spoke after the race about the trouble she had in the last 25m which hurt her in the morning as well. 

"It didn’t feel too bad honestly. I probably felt a little bit better until the last 25 again, and then, you know, it hurt like this morning, but it’s very hard to tell where you’re at in the race for breaststroke, so I was just trying to get my hands on the wall, but sadly it’s just not meant to be.

"That’s just the way it goes sometimes, everyone’s kind of feeling it out in the heats and I had a very good heat swim, like very happy with that, and it is important to be able to kind of produce that in the morning, so that’s a great takeaway. I just didn’t replicate it tonight."

McSharry still has the 50m and 200, Breaststroke to come during the week and the Sligo native said she will have to reset ahead of those races. 

"You know, I just have two days now to kind of just reset my mind and yeah, get back on the train and kind of go through the process again and see what I can do."

Evan Bailey made his first appearance in a World semi-final when he finished 16th overall in 1:48.75, just outside the Irish Record of 1:46.66, in the 200m Freestyle semi-final. 

It was a surreal moment for Bailey as he walked out for the semi-final. 

"It was amazing to walk out there." said Bailey. 

"I mean, like the atmosphere and just everyone in the crowd, screaming, I walked out, it was surreal. It was a great to experience it and to get that experience on the world stage, and I’m really grateful to have been in that semi-final. But yeah, my race plan didn’t go to plan, I’m a bit disappointed with that. I’ll have to go back and reassess with my coach on what went wrong there, but then there’s always positives to come back on, to get an experience on that level. It’ll just be good to build on in the future."

Daniel Wiffen will begin his defence of his 800m Freestyle World Title in the preliminary round on Tuesday. Wiffen needs to finish in the top eight to progress to the final on Wednesday. Limerick's Jack Cassin makes his World Championships debut in the 200m Butterfly.