Tanya Watson, in her first senior international final, finished a creditable seventh in the Women's 10-metre diving platform final at the European Championships in Glasgow.
Watson, who also finished seventh at the European Junior Championships in July, improved on this morning’s score of 233.15 by over 40 points to finish with 276.85; at one point the Southampton-based diver was in fifth place.
She moved to seventh after a 43.50-points dive in round 4 but showed brilliant resilience to score her highest points of 60.75 for her last dive, a forward three and a half somersault tuck, bettering this morning’s preliminaries score on the same dive by over 20 points.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport afterwards, Watson said ‘I’m really really happy with that performance, there’s a lot I can take from that, a lot of stuff I can improve, but I haven’t done a senior list for about a year now, so to be able to perform like that on the day I’m really chuffed’
Mona McSharry failed to make the final of the women’s 50m Breaststroke
The 17-year-old Sligo competitor had earlier finished third in her heat with a time of 31.09 in a race won by Russia’s Yulia Efimova.
‘The final was just out of reach...I’m happy with the experience I got’ – Mona McSharry reflects on the 2018 European Championships #Glasgow2018 pic.twitter.com/Qoz1EqRzKT
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 8, 2018
She qualified as the 10th fastest overall. In the semis, she finished sixth in the first heat in a time of 31.45 and that left her 12th overall.
There was also no joy for Calum Bain and Robbie Powell in the men's 50m freestyle heats.
Competing in his first major championships, Powell’s time of 23.35 was good enough for fourth in a heat won by Hungary’s Peter Holada at the Tollcross Centre.
Calum Bain went in heat seven and in just his second major championships after the Commonwealth Games, he had to settle for eighth with a time of 23.11. In a high quality heat, Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev took first with three from the heat qualifying for the semi-finals.
In the 100m Butterfly, Brendan Hyland also failed to progress after he was seventh in a heat won by Championship record holder Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.
Hyland, who clocked a new Irish senior record in the semi-final of the 200m Butterfly last week, clocked a time of 53.37, 1.45 seconds behind Cseh.
IRISH IN ACTION FOR REST OF DAY
Athletics
1915 - M's 200m semi-finals - Leon Reid
1940 - W's 10000m final - Emma Mitchell
Swimming
1725 - W's 50m Breast semi-finals - Mona McSharry
Road Cycling
1300 - M's Time Trial - Ryan Mullen, Eddie Dunbar
Diving
1440 - W's 10m Platform final - Tanya Watson
Golf
Italy beat Ireland 2&1 (Michael Hoey and Neil O'Briain) in Group B
