McSharry secures her place at the World Championships

Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry secured her place at the World Championships in Singapore in July by winning the 100m breaststroke final at the Irish Championships in Dublin.

On her return to competitive racing for the first time since the Paris Games last summer, the Sligo swimmer was pushed all the way to the wall by Enniskillen’s Ellie McCartney.

McSharry’s time of one minute 6.87 seconds was well outside her best, while McCartney was just one-tenth of a second behind and the same length of time outside of qualifying for the worlds.

"It's exciting. It wouldn't be as fun if I was just out there by myself, so I definitely love a little bit of a push," McSharry said after her victory.

"Honestly, that might have been what I needed, was a little bit of a race just to kind of get me over the line."

McSharry has just recently returned to training after fulfilling her dream of winning an Olympic medal.

"I was honestly a little bit worried coming into it," she added.

"I'm just back and it's not an easy time to do, to qualify for Worlds.

"I never try and take that for granted and I knew I was going to be kind of restarting in a sense and trying to build my way back up.

"It's definitely a good starting point, my first couple of races since the Olympics, so we're just kind of getting a feel for it again."

McCartney is one of the up-and-coming hopes for Ulster and Irish swimming.

She chalked up two golds and a bronze at the 2023 Youth Commonwealth Games and the 20-year-old has qualifying times for both the European under-23s and World University Games this summer.

She’ll race her favourite event, the 200m breaststroke, later in the championships.

"It's my first time under that 1:07 mark. I only went under 1:09 this year so it's a big drop for me," she said.

"Going that fast and having such a tight race against Mona, it's always an honour to race her so it gives me good confidence for the 200m hopefully."

She also has one eye on the Commonwealth Games next year.

"Glasgow would be great. I didn't get to go to Birmingham so it's always an honour to represent Northern Ireland.

"You don't get many opportunities, and I have such a fond memory of going to the Commonwealth Youth Games, so if I were to be able to go to Glasgow it would be an honour to represent Northern Ireland again."

Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen continued his good form, taking the 400m freestyle title to add to the 800m he won on Sunday.

He swam a Championship record and World Championships qualification time of 3:46.87 and now looks forward to the 1500m freestyle on Wednesday.

"It was tough, coming into this I thought I was going to be quite fast in the 400m," admitted Wiffen.

"I'm disappointed, to be honest. I've got to drop seven seconds to be within the top of the world for the LA Olympics.

"I think it's pretty doable. I'm just going to get back training, I think that's what it's showing me, in this racing I'm not as fit as I thought."

Eighteen-year-old John Shortt from Galway continued his incredible week with an outstanding swim in the 200m backstroke semi-final.

The National Centre Limerick swimmer smashed his Irish Senior and Junior record, the Championship record and was under the qualification time for the World Championships.

His time of 1:56.61 ranks him sixth in the world this year.