Mona McSharry finishes fifth in world swimming final behind four Olympic champions

She came agonisingly close to becoming Ireland’s first-ever world-long course medallist - she was just .13 seconds off the bronze medal. She clocked a time of 1:06.07, just outside her Irish record set earlier at the championships.

In a stacked field, McSharry came home behind four Olympic gold medallists including 2012 Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte from Lithuania, who took gold in 1:04.62, Tokyo 2020 200m breaststroke champion Tatjana Schoenmaker (South Africa) in 1:05.84, Tokyo Olympic champion in the 100m breaststroke, Lydia Jacoby (USA), in 1:05.94, and Rio 2016 gold medallist and world-record holder in the event, Lily King (USA), in 1:06.02.

McSharry, who has swam inside the Olympic qualification time for Paris 2024 three times in the past two days, said:

‘I think looking at it, it’s obviously a little painful, especially not swimming fastest in the final hurts, but it’s all learning experience and when I look at the people that came ahead of me, world champions, record holders, Olympic champions, so to be up there and racing against them and have it be such a close race is giving me a great confidence boost.

“I just have to carry on to the rest of the events this week and not let it take me down. I think it’s great to be able to practice racing against those people for the Olympics next year because that’s the main goal in my mind. It’s just training and preparing for that meet, so look it’s a great result, fifth in the world, I can’t be too upset with it.”

McSharry returns to the pool on Thursday for the 200m breaststroke heats.

Tomorrow, Danielle Hill returns to the pool for the 50m backstroke, Shane Ryan makes his championship debut in the 100m freestyle and after qualifying from this morning’s heats, Daniel Wiffen, who swam the Olympic qualification time in a new Irish record of 7:43.81, will compete in the 800m freestyle final at 12.02pm (Ireland).