Mona McSharry finished fifth in a red-hot 100m breaststroke final at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan on Tuesday afternoon.
McSharry hit the wall in one minute 6.07 seconds, with those women ahead of her all Olympic champions.
Lithuania's 2012 Olympic heroine Ruta Meilutyte grabbed gold in 1:04.62, with Tokyo 2020 200m champion Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa second in 1:05.84. The podium places were rounded off by Lydia Jacoby in 1:05.94, with the US star the reigning Olympic champion in the event.
Jacoby's compatriot Lily King, who is the current world record holder and the 2016 Olympic champion, missed out on a medal as she finished fourth in 1:06.02.
After the race, the 22-year-old from Sligo said: "It's s obviously a little painful, especially not swimming fastest in the final hurts, but it’s all a learning experience and when I look at the people that came ahead of me – world champions, record holders, Olympic champions – to be up there and racing against them and have it be such a close race is giving me a great confidence boost.
"I just have to carry on to the rest of the events this week and not let it take me down.
"I think it’s great to be able to practice racing against those people for the Olympics next year because that’s the main goal in my mind.
"It’s just training and preparing for that meet. So look, it’s a great result, fifth in the world, I can’t be too upset with it."
McSharry, who has already qualified for the 100m breaststroke at Paris 2024, returns to the pool on Thursday for the heats of the 200m breaststroke.
Earlier in the day, Wiffen secured his own Olympic qualification after breaking his Irish record in the 800m freestyle.
In winning his heat and qualifying for the final, Wiffen's time of seven minutes 43.81 seconds erased his previous best of 7:44.45 from the record books, and was also well inside the Olympic qualifying time of 7:51.65.
The County Down competitor is the third swimmer to achieve qualification for Paris, with Ellen Walshe (200m individual medley) set to join Wiffen and McSharry in the French capital next summer.
Wiffen ranks fourth in the 800m freestyle final, with the full Tokyo 2020 podium of Bobby Finke (gold), Gregorio Paltrinieiri (silver) and Mykhailo Romanchuk (bronze) also advancing.
The final is scheduled for Wednesday at 12.02pm Irish time, with Danielle Hill and Shane Ryan also in action at the Marine Messe Fukuoka.
Speaking after the race, Wiffen said: "I'm feeling great, that’s obviously job one done, which was to qualify for the Olympics, and then to progress to the final was next, so I’ve done both in a really great race.
"My plan was to be as easy as possible and I was maybe hoping for a tiny bit faster, but I’m really happy I made it back and it wasn’t too taxing on the body."
Darragh Greene won his heat of the 50m breaststroke in 27.54 to finish in 22nd spot overall.
Victoria Catterson, making her individual World Championships debut clocked 2:00.82 in the 200m freestyle.
Both Greene and Catterson return to the pool on Thursday for the 200m breaststroke and 100m freestyle respectively.
