McSharry Slashes 2 Seconds from her own Irish Record at Mel Zajac – 7th in World this Season

59TH ANNUAL MEL ZAJAC JR. INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

While much of the swimming world has their attention focused on Indianapolis for the US Swimming Trials or on Belgrade for the European Championships, or on Rome for Sette Colle, a few high-profile athletes that train in North America but are not American themselves have traveled to Vancouver for the 59th Annual Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet. One such swimmer, Mona McSharry, capitalized on the opportunity and crushed a new Irish National record.

McSharry, who trains out of the University of Tennessee, swam 2:22.49 in the prelims of the 200 breaststroke this morning. McSharry entered the meet as the 2nd seed behind Alexanne Lepage but blew away the competition, setting a new personal best and National record. McSharry’s personal best and the former national record was 2:24.50, which she set back in May of 2023 at the Glasgow International Swim Meet. When we look at her split between the two swims, we can see that McSharry was more aggressive on the 2nd 50, taking it out nearly one and a half seconds faster and being a second faster on the 3rd 50. While the 4th 50 was a half a second slower, she chopped a full two seconds off her old Irish record.

50 100 150 200
New Irish Record 32.70 1:08.77 (36.07) 1:45.00 (36.23) 2:22.49 (37.49)
Old Irish Record 32.63 1:10.14 (37.51) 1:47.50 (37.36) 2:24.50 (37.00)

The new record jumps McSharry way up the rankings, and she now sits 7th in the World, but with  American Alex Walsh not being named to the Olympic team in this event and Russian Evgeniia Chikunova not competing, McSharry could find herself with a top-five seed at the Olympics. While the Irish Olympic Championships and Olympic Trials concluded at the end of May the official qualifying window closes tomorrow, June 23rd, so she still could add the event.

2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Breast

2Kate
DOUGLASS
USA2:19.3001/13
3Evgeniia
CHIKUNOVA
RUS2:19.7404/19
4Tes
SCHOUTEN
NED2:19.8102/16
5Lilly
KING
USA2:21.9306/20
6Alex
WALSH
USA2:22.3806/20
7Shiwen
YE
CHN2:22.5504/24
8Jenna
STRAUCH
AUS2:22.8310/20
9Ella
Ramsay
AUS2:22.8706/14
10Sydney
PICKREM
CAN2:22.9402/16
View Top 31»

The Irishwoman has found success in short course, winning the bronze medal at the 2021 Worlds in the 100 breast, in addition to finishing runner-up at 2024 NCAAs in both the 100 and 200, but has yet to collect any hardware at major international competitions. At the most recent World Championship in Doha, she finished 5th in both the 100 and 200 breast.

In Paris, McSharry will tackle the 100 breast, where she is ranked 15th in the world. She will be joined by Danielle Hill and Ellen Walshe as well as Daniel Wiffen and Tom Fannon.

 

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