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Paris 2024: Joy for Mona McSharry in taking 100m breaststroke bronze

Updated / Tuesday, 30 Jul 2024 00:23

Mona McSharry delivered Ireland's first medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, winning a bronze medal at a packed La Defense Arena.

Competing in her second Olympic final, the Sligo swimmer touched out third by the very slimmest of margins, beating Italy's Benedetta Pilato and world record holder and 2016 champion Lilly King of the United States both by 0.01 of a second in a time of 1:05.59.

South Africa's Tatjana Smith took gold in 1:05.28, with China's Qiantang Tang second in 1:05.54.

At the age of 15, McSharry was just under a second shy of the time required to make the Rio Games. A European junior champion at the age of 16 in the 50m breaststroke, and then shortly after her 17th birthday, she became a world junior champion in the 100m breaststroke.

Another global gold came in the latter event in 2021, some five months after McSharry's name gained a wider prominence at the Tokyo Olympics. She became only the second Irish swimmer ever to make an Olympic final when taking her place in the 100m breaststroke.

And now she can step on the podium that matters the most.

A product of Ballyshannon Marlins SC, who honed her talent at the University of Tennessee, the 23-year-old said afterwards: "I could see the Chinese girl beside me so I knew that she was ahead of me so I was like, 'I need to try and catch her' because if she's ahead then I don’t know what’s going on, on the other side – I can’t see that.

"I had a bad first fifty – my goggles filled up with water a little bit, so not a perfect race but it just shows you’re in it until the end and you just have to keep going – I was like 'I’m not giving up, I’m going, I’m going’ and I think it was 0.01 between me and the next swimmers so that’s kind of crazy, but that’s what racing is about – close finishes.

"It's just amazing because it’s years of hard work that have paid off and it just feels amazing."

A first Olympic final for Ellen Walshe saw her finish eighth in the women's 400m individual medley.

The Templeogue native clocked 4:40.70, slightly slower than what she delivered in Monday morning's heats. She was pipped for seventh spot by Great Britain's Katie Shanahan by .53 of a second.

The race was won by Canada's Summer McIntosh, who holds the world record for the event, in a time of 4:27.71, with the US duo Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant taking silver and bronze respectively in 4:33.40 and 4:34.93.

Speaking after the race, Walshe said that while the it was not the performance she would have dreamed of, she was delight to make an Olympic final.

She told RTÉ Sport: "I think I could have expected myself to have a slightly stronger swim tonight but I don't think my legs were up for it.

"When you see the time, you always want to have a PB, and you come to the Olympics and dream of swimming your fastest ever and when you don't do it you feel like you failed a bit but we’ll look at the overall in a few weeks time."

Breaking down her performance, Walshe said she felt she did not focus on her own race.

"I tried to take the fly out strong as it's one of my stronger strokes, I think when I tried to do that this morning with a lot of nerves, it didn’t really work out.

"Tonight I wasn’t really racing my own race, I was probably racing what was beside me instead of taking it out strong and holding on," she said.

However, she said she hoped reaching an Olympic final will help inspire other young athletes in the sport.

"It's a massive achievement, I don't fully see it now but I hope to look back and say 'that was incredible'.

"Tonight was fantastic, I would have liked to be a little quicker, but it wasn't tonight," she added.

It was also an eighth-place finish for Danielle Hill in the first of the 100m backstroke semi-finals. She posted a time of 1:00.80, a fraction slower than what she swam in Monday morning's heats.

Danielle Hill

It was a decent start from the Larne swimmer, but by the turn she was seventh, and dropped away further on the final 50m.

Hill, who was well off her PB, said that while she was a little annoyed at the time, she was choosing to look at the positives.

"It's my first semi-final, I cannot be disappointed - of course I can be annoyed at the time but it's something completely out of my control.

"My legs felt a little heavy on the way back, I hit the wall quite hard and then I struggled to pick the pace back up again.

"In a field of that calibre if you do that you're well and done. Again, a little frustrating but I'm a semi-finalist so when I step back and look back on it I'll be proud of what I done."

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