Fifth spot again for Mona McSharry in World 200m breaststroke final

Mona McSharry secured her second fifth-place finish at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Friday afternoon.

McSharry touched home in fifth in the 200m breaststroke, three days after doing likewise in the 100m breaststroke final.

No medal, but McSharry has shown herself to be among the worlds leading artists of the breaststroke.

Just half-a-second off a medal in the 100m final, the margin was a little wider here, the Marlins Swimming Club alumna 5.08 seconds off the gold medal winner when finishing in 2:24.89.

Dutchwoman Tes Schouten was the impressive victor, her 2:19.81 blowing her competitors out of the water with the eighth fastest time of all time.

Kate Douglass from the United Stages took silver in 2:20.91 with Canada's Sydney Pickrem earning bronze, clocking 2:22.94.

In between Pickrem and McSharry was Alina Zmushka, the Belarus swimmer going under the neutral flag, going 2:24.44.

McSharry, who hails from Grange in County Sligo, was seventh at the 50m turn, but was into fifth by the midway point, a position she maintained to the last stroke in the Aspire Dome.

"It's gone really well," she said. "This is the first time it's starting to click. It's not the time I wanted but I think I'm racing it properly now and figuring out the right way to do it."

The University of Tennessee student was the second fastest from the heats on Thursday morning, coming back in a time, 2:24.82, that was only .32 of a second off the 2:24.50 Irish record she marked in 2023.

A 2:25.13 swim in the semi-final secured her place in lane 1 of the final.

McSharry is scheduled to go in the 50m breaststroke heats on Saturday morning.