McSharry, Walshe and Fannon progress to European semi-finals

Walshe will have a busy evening on Saturday, going in the 200m individual medley final before returning for the 200m butterfly semi-final. 

Ellen Walshe: "It's definitely hard to refocus since Wednesday and just kind of get yourself back on track, but I guess that's what we've trained for." Pic: Baptiste Fernandez/Sportsfile

It was another productive morning for Ireland at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris, with double European medallist Mona McSharry, European champion Ellen Walshe and Tom Fannon all progressing through their heats to Saturday evening’s session. They will be joined by Daniel Wiffen, who contests the 1500m Freestyle Final at 18:20.

Walshe faces a demanding double this evening, beginning with the 200m individual medley final before returning to the pool for the 200m butterfly semi-final after safely advancing through the morning heats.

The Templeogue swimmer placed third in her heat in 2:11.81, progressing ninth overall, but admitted it took her some time to settle into the race.

"I think I wasn't really fully committed to the whole thing," she said. 

"I just copped on that second 100m, and I was like, ‘whoops. It's a strong field out there as well, so it'll be tight to get back in top eight tonight.’ 

"It's definitely hard to refocus since Wednesday and just kind of get yourself back on track, but I guess that's what we've trained for. I knew coming in the back end (of the week) was going to be busy, so I've just got to get on with it."

Walshe will contest the 200m individual medley final at 5:47pm before returning for the 200m butterfly semi-final at 6:56pm.

After adding 200m breaststroke bronze to her 100m breaststroke silver on Friday night, McSharry was back in action in the 50m breaststroke heats. The Sligo swimmer equalled her third-fastest career performance of 30.37 to win her heat and qualify fourth overall for this evening’s semi-finals.

McSharry said, "I'm happy out. I didn't think that was how that race was going. I felt a bit messy in the first 25m, and I was like ‘no, just put the head down here, you've got it’, so I'm happy.

"I was looking at the heats this morning, and I knew you'd have to be around 30-point low, and you never know with the 50 for me. I feel like sometimes it just isn't that, so I'm really happy with that."

The 50m breaststroke semi-final is scheduled for 6:01pm.

Tom Fannon made his long-awaited European Aquatics Championships debut in Paris in the 50m freestyle. The Olympic semi-finalist arrived at the championships in excellent form after lowering his own Irish record to 21.58 last month and looked comfortable in the heats, clocking 21.85 to place fourth in his race and ninth overall.

Speaking after the swim, Fannon said "It was a long wait, always is. I'd say you get used to it, but not really. It was a decent swim, it was controlled. I tried not to push it as much as I wanted to, in a way, I wanted to conserve a little bit of energy. I could see the lads either side of me, so I knew I was in the race. It's a quick morning for them; there was some quick swims."

On the Irish record he set last month he added "It's definitely a confidence booster, I know I can do that again. Even this morning's swim wasn't too far off the heat swim I did a couple of weeks ago, and that was definitely a better swim. There were some errors here this morning, feet entries, all that kind of stuff, so... it's just executing a decent race tonight, making sure I execute the breakout, and then the swim will take care of itself." Fannon will race in the second semi-final of the 50m freestyle at 5:57pm.

Elsewhere, John Shortt narrowly missed out on a place in the 100m backstroke semi-finals. The European Championships finalist touched fourth in his heat in 54.17, just 0.15 seconds shy of the qualification mark.

In the 50m Freestyle, Irish junior record holder Matthew Hamilton came agonisingly close to his best, posting 22.61, just four hundredths outside his Irish junior record of 22.57.

Ireland was also represented by three swimmers in the 200m individual medley heats, with National Centre Limerick's Jack Cassin leading the Irish contingent in 2:02.15. Jacob Armon followed in 2:02.84, while Liam Custer recorded a personal best of 2:03.83.