Mona McSharry advances to 200m breaststroke semi-final in Rome

Mona McSharry has advanced to the 200m breaststroke semi-finals at the European Swimming Championships in Rome.

Following the frustration of missing a medal in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday, McSharry finished second in her 200m breaststroke heat.

The Marlin’s Swimming Club Ballyshannon star finished in 2:26.94 for second in the heat and seventh fastest qualifier overall.

The Grange woman will be in semi-final action later on Sunday.

The 21-year-old was disappointed with a fifth-place finish in the 100m breaststroke final.

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Benedetta Pilato of Italy won the race in 1:05.97 and her compatriot Lisa Angiolini was second ahead of Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte in third and another Lithuanian, Kotryna Teterevkova, fourth.

McSharry clocked 1:07.14, which brought a twinge of disappointment as her semi-final time of 1:06.44 would’ve been enough for third place in the final.

“I put high expectations on myself and that’s not really where I wanted to be tonight,” she told RTE Sport. “That’s the way the cards fall sometimes and I did all I could. I was trying to work better on the back 50. You can’t predict it sometimes. It’s really nice to race against those top ladies. Most of them were in the Tokyo final so it’s not a step down. 

“There’s some tough competition in Europe. I’m blessed that I can get to this level. All the hard training and the tougher months,  when you’re not in front of the cameras you wonder ‘why the hell do I do this?’ but this is why. It’s what I work hard to do. I’ve my coach from home Grace Meade [Marlins Swimming Club in Ballyshannon] here and my family, which is great.”