MONA MCSHARRY DECLARED herself disappointed with a fifth-placed finish in the final of the 100m breaststroke at the European Championships in Rome tonight.
McSharry finished fifth in a time of 1.1:07.14, slower than her semi-final time of 1:06.44. The race was won by Italian Benedetta Pilato in a time of 1.05:97, followed by her compatriot Lisa Angiolini (1:06.34) and Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte (1:06.50).
“I put high expectations on myself but that’s not where I wanted to be tonight”, McSharry told RTÉ. “It would have been nice to go another 1.06 but look, that’s the way the cards fall sometimes. I did all I could.
“I have been struggling with the back 50 and I have been trying to work better on that. If you had asked me to call out the time before I saw it I would have guessed faster, it felt better. But it will be interesting to look back and review it and see where I lost where I felt it was gaining.
“Most of them were in the Tokyo final. It’s not a level down, we are constantly racing against each other, that’s what is fun about it. We keep going up against each other and getting better. Europe is no small feat, there is some tough competition out there.”
McSharry returns to the pool tomorrow in the 200m breaststroke. ‘The 200 is tomorrow morning, so it’s really going to be a quick turnaround, I’ll go back, get some food and sleep and mentally prepare for the next couple of days. That’s how you’re going to get an edge on your competitors now: we’re all doing the same events, we’re all getting up tomorrow morning so there’s nothing different for any of us.”
Elsewhere this evening, Longford’s Darragh Greene ranked 13th overall among the semi-finalists in the men’s 200m breaststroke, missing out on a place in the final. Greene finished seventh and second-last in his semi-final, in a time of 2:12.73.
Danielle Hill, meanwhile, swam the exact same time as her heat this morning, clocking 28.54 for sixth position in her 50m Backstroke semi-final and ranking 14th overall.
Away from the Irish interest, David Popovici broke the men’s 100m freestyle world record to win gold.
The 17-year-old Romanian double world champion swam 46.86sec to slice 0.05sec off the old mark set by Brazilian Cesar Cielo in the same pool at the 2009 World Championships in the era of buoyant body suits.
The fastest time in a textile suit had been 46.96 set by American Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel at the 2019 World Championships. Hungary’s Kristof Milak was second on Saturday with Italy’s Alessandro Miressi third. Popovici had eased into the final on Friday with a new European record of 46.98 seconds.
Additional reporting by – © AFP 2022
