Mona McSharry has qualified for the semi-finals of the 100m breaststroke in Tokyo after finishing third in her heat in a time of one minute 6.39 seconds as South African Tatjana Schoenmaker set a new Olympic record of 1:04.82.
McSharry was a tenth of a second outside of her Irish record at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre but qualified comfortably in the last 16 for the semi-finals as she finished ninth overall from the six heats.
The Sligo woman now has her sights set on a place in the final.
Speaking afterwards, McSharry said: "I'm really excited. It was really nice to do that, it really is something else competing at the Olympics and I’m really glad that I’ve got the first race done now, and I’m so happy that I get to do another one.
"I really burned coming up the last 25 metres. I could see the Swiss coming up the right of me and I was like, 'I’m not letting her touch me out'. I thought she almost had me, but I really pushed the last 10 metres.
"It’s really nice to be competing against great swimmers that are breaking records like that and say that you were in the same race as them."
Danielle Hill missed out of a place in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke as she finished third in her heat in a time of 1:00.86 to rank 25th overall.
The Larne woman swam 1:00.18 to qualify and was left underwhelmed by her performance.
"I'm a little disappointed with how it went," she admitted. "I would have liked to perform a little bit better, especially given that it is an evening swim, but at the same time, I’m proud to put the Irish hat on and represent Larne as well.
"I think I was a little bit scared to attack it, if I’m being brutally honest. I should have gone out and attacked it, but that’s what I’ve got to learn and the only way I’m going to learn it is by doing it wrong."
Hill returns to the pool for the 50m freestyle next week.
