Mona McSharry misses out on place in Olympic 200m breaststroke final

Mona McSharry bowed out of the 200m breaststroke at the Olympic Games after finishing sixth in Wednesday night's semi-final.

McSharry clocked 2:24.48 and was 11^th overall in the semis with the top eight advancing to the final.

The exertions of a few days that saw her win the 100m breaststroke bronze medal on Monday night perhaps caught up on McSharry, who just didn't have the finishing kick in the last 25 metres at the Paris La Défense Arena.

Out of lane 6, McSharry, was fourth with 50m to go, but the Marlins Swimming Club in Ballyshannon was nudged out of a final place.

The heat was won by Kate Douglass from the United States in 2:19.74 with Tatjana Smith – the South African who won the 100m final on Monday – second ahead of US star Lilly King (2:23.25) and Japan's Satomi Suzuki (2:23.54) and Sydney Pickrem of Canada (2:24.03).

In Wednesday morning's heat, McSharry came through in third, swimming 2:23.98 – qualifying for the semis as the second fastest of the participants.

Dutch swimmer Tes Schouten won the first semi in 2:22.74 with South Africa's Kaylene Corbett second in 2:22.87 and Ye Shiwen of China third in 2:23.13.

Back in June, McSharry shaved over two seconds off her Irish 200m breaststroke record when dipping to 2:22.49 at the Mel Zajac Jr International Swim Meet in Vancouver, Canada. In doing so, she became the first Irish swimmer to go below 2:23 in the 200m breaststroke event.
On Monday night, McSharry swam for her life to edge Benedetta Pilato from Italy and USA's Lilly King, the world record holder, by one hundredth of a second to get bronze in the 100m.

It was that close as McSharry took her place in the pantheon of Ireland's Olympic medallists, finishing in 1:05.59 for bronze.

On Sunday night, McSharry lowered the Irish 100m breaststroke record to 1:05.51 in her semi-final.
Late on Saturday morning, McSharry will be back in action in the 4x100m medley relay.