Mona McSharry has finished fifth in the final of the 200m breaststroke at the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar.
The Sligo woman was seventh at the 50m mark but had improved to fifth by the halfway stage.
That's where she finished, touching the wall in 2 mins 24.89 seconds to match her placing in the 100m final.
Tes Schouten of the Netherlands was the surprise winner in 2:19.91, ahead of the reigning champion, American Kate Douglass [2:20.91].
Canadian Sydney Pickrem took bronze in 2:22.94, just under two seconds ahead of the Irish woman.
McSharry's time was outside the 2:23.91 required to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games - as she has done in the 100m event - but she will have another chance at the Irish national trials in May.
She did, however, take some positives from her showing in the 200m final, when commenting afterwards: "It's gone really well. This is the first time it’s really starting to click, not the time I wanted, but I think I’m racing it properly now and kind of figuring out the right way to do it and I guess it’s just practice."
McSharry returns to the pool on Saturday morning for the heats of the 50m breaststroke, the Irish record holder in the event in 30.29 adding: "I think it will be fun, it's definitely going to be a tough turnaround to go straight back into it tomorrow morning but it’s nice to finish on a 50m, one length, just splash and dash."
Max McCusker equalled the Irish record in the 100m butterfly in 52.52 seconds as he finished joint 16th, which meant he had a swim-off for a place in the semi-final.
However despite improving and lowering the national record with a time of 52.31, McCusker lost out to Mathew Sates of South Africa by 0.51 of a second and failed to progress.
"I'm happy, first time getting a PB [personal best] in that event for two years now, so it was quite emotional," McCusker said afterwards.
"Obviously, I wanted to make the semi-final, but that’s not the focus here so I’m happy with it. I feel like I’m only learning the race again, they are only two times I’ve done it long course since Japan [2023 World Championships]."
McCusker is now just 0.64 of a second away from the Olympic qualification time of 51.67. The Cork swimmer returns to the pool on Sunday for the heats of the men’s 4x100m medley relay.
Maria Godden was also a little unfortunate as she finished 17th overall and missed a semi-final place by one position in the women's 200m backstroke.
It was her second top-20 finish of the week after20th place in the 100m backstroke on Wednesday.
"I'm happy enough with it, it’s faster than what I was at Flanders [International Meet] two weeks ago by over two seconds, so it’s definitely moving in the right direction," she said.
"February is difficult to produce personal bests, it’s been an amazing experience this time, and if I don’t make a semi this time, there’s always Worlds next year."
Just outside her best of 2:12.19, Godden clocked 2:13.30 and will be first reserve for this afternoon’s semi-final.
Tom Fannon posted a time of 22.23 in the 50m freestyle, but that was only good enough for 24th overall, 0.11 outside a last-16 place.
"I'm a bit disappointed," Fannon said after the swim. "I won’t lie, it’ still a bit raw. Training has been going well, I’ve been fast in training, lifting well, so the prep was there, everything was there.
"The swim felt good, so I’m going to have to go back and talk to Steve [his coach] and just figure out what went wrong and where."
Along with McSharry, 800m freestyle world champion Daniel Wiffen returns to the pool for the heats of the 1500m Freestyle tomorrow. Wiffen enters the preliminary round as the fourth fastest qualifier, the top eight will progress to Sunday evening’s final. Erin Riordan also closes out her championship with the 50m Freestyle.
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