Ireland’s Ellie McCartney and John Shortt have secured semi-final places in their main events, the 200m Breaststroke and 200m Backstroke respectively, as the World Aquatics Championships continued on Thursday morning. The duo will join Ellen Walshe, who swims the 200m Butterfly Final, in action during the Finals session on day five of racing in Singapore.
In the 200m Breaststroke, a strong showing from McCartney saw her third in her heat in 2:25.22, her fifth fastest swim all time and second fastest morning swim. The result saw McCartney, who has a best time of 2:24.02 from the Irish Trials in April, progress to the semi-final in eighth overall.
Speaking after the race, the National Centre Limerick swimmer said, “I’m over the moon. I think I take a lot of pride on the journey to get to the World Championships, I’ve dropped a lot of time in the 200m Breast(stroke) this year, made it my main event over the 200m IM. So being able to come here, having two A standard times, it’s something I take a bit of pride in and now to progress further to the semi-final, it’s just a happy ending to the long summer.”
Having had an extremely successful Irish Trials in April ahead of going on to win gold, silver and bronze medals at the European U23 Championships in June the Enniskillen woman reflected on her mindset ahead of the Championships.
“Yeah, I think there was a lot of success, but there was a lot of room to work on. I know heat swims aren’t my strongest, all my PBs come from an evening swim, so my main focus here was to be fast in the heat, so to be able to achieve that this morning and make it back tonight, it’s exciting.”
McCartney’s teammate in Limerick, John Shortt, was also in excellent form on Thursday, the 18-year -old swimming his second-best time ever in the 200m Backstroke clocking 1:56.98, just outside his Irish record 1:56.61.
The time saw the Galway man fourth in his heat and fourteenth overall to secure his place in the semi-final at his second consecutive World Championships.
A delighted Shortt spoke after the race. “It’s such a such a long wait, during the week, you know, like I had the 100, which was really nice to get in and swim, but, you know, this is such a nerve wracking experience when you’re just waiting around to go, and you’re seeing everybody else race around you, and everybody going either a best time or not doing so well or whatever happens, but you know it’s so good just to get in there and make it back, it’s class.
He added, “It felt really good, the first 100m I was smooth and controlled. I think getting in for the 100 (Backstroke) was a big thing because I was able to know exactly kind of what happens, when I don’t kind of think in my head, you know, I kind of start racing the people beside me, but in that one, I just swam my own race. I was smooth, I was controlled, it was really good.”
In the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, Eoin Corby had a top 20 finish clocking 2:11.84, the National Centre Limerick swimmer was just. 5 outside the semi-final places.
The Limerick man said after the race: “I’m a bit disappointed. I don’t know, I gave it my best shot. I was a small bit off my PB, it’s a bit annoying that my PB would have made it back, but yeah, I just need to come back better next year.”
In the 100m Freestyle, Danielle Hill touched in 56.59 seconds. The Larne swimmer returns to the blocks on Friday for the 50m Freestyle, an event she holds the Irish record in, in 24.68.
While Mona McSharry did not swim the 200m Breaststroke on Thursday morning, she is still entered to swim the 50m Breaststroke on Saturday.
At the Diving, Jake Passmore was 27th overall from 66 divers in the 3M Springboard Preliminaries. The Paris Olympian was just 14 points outside the top 18 places required for the semi-final with 360.60 points. Passmore’s best score came from his opening dive, a forward 3 ½ somersaults, for 68.20 points.
Having been out of the pool for six months, and back training just two months post-surgery on his shoulder, Passmore was pleased with his first international competition since the Paris Games.
“Overall, can’t complain today. Not the best performance but I’m really pleased that despite the difficult year I’ve had I’ve managed to stay competitive and put myself in a position that I can be proud of. Getting the opportunity to compete again makes me really excited for what I can do in the next couple of years.”
