IRELAND’S MONA MCSHARRY made more swimming history last night as she won 100m breaststroke gold at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Indianapolis USA, four day after Shane Ryan’s gold at the World University Games.
She also became the first Irish swimmer to win gold at the World Junior Swimming Championships.
Sligo native McSharry lead from start to finish in Saturday night’s race, winning by .37 of a second from silver medalist Faith Knelson of Canada (1:07.47) and USA’s Zoe Bartel (1:07.63) who finished third.
Racing to the championship title and gold medal, the 17-year-old eclipsed Fiona Doyle’s 2015 Irish Record of 1:07.15 by five hundredths of a second winning in 1:07.10, knocking almost three tenths of a second off her own previous best of 1:07.38 from this year’s Irish Open Swimming Championships. Doyle’s time was her qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
“It’s wonderful to win here at the World Juniors, to stand on top of the podium and hear our anthem played,” McSharry said afterwards. “I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me on my journey so far; and now for the 200m (Breaststroke) – I’m not finished yet.”
In just eight scintillating weeks, McSharry has won World and European 100m breaststroke gold, world bronze and European gold in the 50m breaststroke and European 200m breaststroke silver.
The World 200m event takes place on Monday while McSharry returns to the pool today for the 50m freestyle heats.
What an amazing reaction from @MonaMcsharry safe to say she's VERY happy! 🥇🇮🇪 #WorldChampion #FINAWorldJnrsIndy pic.twitter.com/0aMzLyKm3R
— Swim Ireland (@swimireland) August 26, 2017
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