Eighth for Mona McSharry in World 50m breaststroke final

Mona McSharry was eighth in Sunday afternoon's 50m breaststroke final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha.

McSharry, in her third breaststroke final of the Championships, finished in 30.96 seconds to close out an eventful week for the Marlins Swimming Club graduate.

Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, the world record holder, won gold in 29.40 seconds, following by Chinese teenager Qianting Tang (29.51) and Italy's Benedetta Pilato (30.01).

Going out of lane 1, McSharry was 1.56 seconds behind Meilutyte.

McSharry, who was fifth in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke finals, was back in the pool of the Aspire Dome after getting across a length in 30.57 seconds in the semi-final just 24 hours previously.

The 23-year-old University of Tennessee scholar was fourth in a semi, won by Meilutyte, who eased home in 29.42 seconds.

McSharry kicked late to get among the eight finalists, her time an exact replica of that swam by Veera Kivirinta in a semi won by Tang, the 100m champion, in 29.80.

No medal, then, for McSharry, yet the Grange woman has firmly outlined that she is among the world's leading breaststroke swimmers. Competitive in three distances cements that spot nicely five months out from the Olympics.

“One length, just splash and dash,” was how McSharry described the 50m event after a fifth-place finish in Friday's 200m final – one of the fastest 200m breaststroke races of all time.

The 50m semi-final time was just 0.28 of a second from her 30.29 Irish record clocked at the 2023 Irish Open Championships.

McSharry had been aiming for an Olympic qualifying time in the 200m, but the 2:23.91 time needed eluded her on this occasion.

In Friday's final, McSharry finished in 2:24.89 with the 2:19.81 set by the impressive victor, Tes Schouten seeing the Dutchwoman go eighth in the all-time list.

At the end of March, McSharry will go again at the Ramsey Centre at University of Georgia in the NCAA Championships.

McSharry will graduate in kinesiology from University of Tennessee before turning her mind to Paris and the Olympic Games.

McSharry has already booked a place on the 100m breaststroke list for the Olympics At the last Olympiad in Tokyo, she was fifth in her favoured event.

Last Tuesday in Doha, McSharry clocked 1:06.42 in the 100m final, just half-a-second from a podium place with Tang's 1:05.27 sealing gold, followed by Schouten (1:05.82) and Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey, a grandniece of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey, who finished in 1:05.92.