MONA MCSHARRY, ELLEN Walshe and Tom Fannon have all booked their place in the semi-finals later this evening at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris. Daniel Wiffen will also be in action this evening as he contests the Men’s 1500m freestyle final at 6.20pm.

Double European medallist McSharry equalled her third-fastest career performance of 30.37 to win her heat in the 50m breaststroke. 

“I’m happy out,” McSharry said after the race. “I didn’t think that was how that race was going, I felt a bit messy in the first 25m, and I was like ‘no, just put the head down here, you’ve got it’, so I’m happy.

“I was looking at the heats this morning, and I knew you’d have to be around 30-point low, and you never know with the 50 for me, I feel like sometimes it just isn’t that, so I’m really happy with that.”

The 50m Breaststroke Semi-Final is scheduled for 6.01pm.

Walshe, who won a gold medal in the 400m individual medley earlier this week, faces a demanding schedule this evening as she gets back in the water for the 200m individual medley final before the 200m butterfly semi-final.

The Templeogue swimmer was third in her heat this morning in 2:11.81, progressing in ninth place overall.

“I think I wasn’t really fully committed to the whole thing, I just copped on that second 100m, and I was like, ‘whoops. It’s a strong field out there as well, so it’ll be tight to get back in top eight tonight.’

“It’s definitely hard to refocus since Wednesday and just kind of get yourself back on track, but I guess that’s what we’ve trained for, I knew coming in the back end (of the week) was going to be busy, so I’ve just got to get on with it.”

Walshe will contest the 200m individual medley final at 5.47pm before returning for the 200m butterfly semi-final at 6.56pm.

Tom Fannon made his long-awaited European Aquatics Championships debut in Paris in the 50m Freestyle, where he clocked 21.85 to place fourth in his race and ninth overall.

“It was a long wait, always is, I’d say you get used to it, but not really. It was a decent swim, it was controlled, I tried not to push it as much as I wanted to, in a way, I wanted to conserve a little bit of energy. I could see the lads either side of me, so I knew I was in the race. It’s a quick morning for them; there was some quick swims.”

Fannon will race in the second semi-final of the 50m freestyle at 5.57pm.

Elsewhere, John Shortt narrowly missed out on a place in the 100m backstroke semi-finals. The European Championships finalist took fourth in his heat in 54.17, just 0.15 seconds shy of the qualification mark.

In the 50m freestyle, Irish junior record holder Matthew Hamilton came agonisingly close to his best, posting 22.61, just four hundredths outside his Irish junior record of 22.57.

Ireland was also represented by three swimmers in the 200m individual medley heats, with National Centre Limerick’s Jack Cassin leading the Irish contingent in 2:02.15. Jacob Armon followed in 2:02.84, while Liam Custer recorded a personal best of 2:03.83.