McSharry excited by medal prospects, Shortt has 'more in the tank' heading into Euro final

Jack Kelly finished seventh in the 100m breaststroke final on Tuesday

Mona McSharry qualified second overall for the 100m breaststroke final at the European Championships. Pic: Ian MacNicol/Sportsfile

Mona McSharry is excited about her prospects heading into Wednesday's 100m breaststroke final at the European Championships in Paris. The Sligo swimmer qualified second overall from the semi-finals, touching the wall in 1:05.64, the fourth-fastest time of her career. 

Great Britain's Angharad Evans qualified fastest, swimming 1:04.97. Evans, whose time was a new championship record, finished sixth at the Olympics two years ago when McSharry won bronze in the event. 

"I think going in second takes a little bit of the pressure off and let her kind of soak up lane four and just try and get down there beside her - 1:04 would be great," said McSharry. The only negative heading into the final is the lack of croissants at the breakfast buffet. "I've got my family on it," she said. "They're out on a mission tonight to get some." 

McSharry will step onto the blocks at 5:58pm on Wednesday for her final. That will be 18 minutes after John Shortt goes in the 200m backstroke final. The 19-year-old from Galway qualified fifth overall, setting a new national record of 1:55.31. Shortt was eighth in his semi-final after the first length, and seventh after 100m, but ended up finishing second. 

"That was a super imperfect race," said Shortt.

"A lot of things, I did not do well and I'll be the first one to point that out. But at the same time, it doesn't matter how you start a race, it's how you finish it and I finished that really, really well. I know that there's more in the tank tomorrow evening, even though that was a super hard swim."

There was disappointment for Jack Kelly in the 100m breaststroke final as he finished seventh, but also a realisation of just how far he's come at his debut championships. 

The 23-year-old, who hails from New York, qualifies to swim for Ireland through his Cork-born grandmother and grandfather from Longford. He swam 59.36 in the final. The disappointment came from knowing the 58.90 Irish record which he set in the semi-finals was the same time Italy's Simone Cerasuolo swam to claim bronze. 

"There are some things to work on," said Kelly, who goes in the 200m breaststroke heats on Wednesday.

"Like it could have been a little bit faster, but especially in the front half. You look at that swim on its own, it's a really good swim for me. I was really happy with it."

Daniel Wiffen booked his place in Wednesday's 800m freestyle final (7:03pm) by finishing third in his heat, and third overall, with a season’s best 7:44.86. That was more than four seconds quicker than his time from last month’s Commonwealth Games final.