She’s done us proud.
Mona McSharry is making us all swell with pride as she came in eighth place in the 100m breaststroke final this morning.
Clocking in a time of 1:06:94, the Sligo native has outdone herself surpassed her goal when she made her way to the Tokyo Olympics.
She was beaten out of winning gold by United States swimmer Lydia Jacoby, with South Africa’s Tatiana Schoenmaker winning silver and Lilly King from the United States going for bronze.
Speaking on her achievement, Mona said that she was happy to just be competing at the Olympics and that “times don’t matter, it’s all about competing. I think I put in a good fight. I’m happy to come away from my first ever Olympics with an eighth place. It’s really not that bad.”
She told RTÉ: “I was trying to go out kind of smooth, replicate what I did yesterday morning, but go a little faster. I probably went a little too long coming off the wall and I lost a little bit of speed there.
“My tactic was then to race home like I did yesterday, I thought I did that but it’s hard to tell how you did until you watched it.
“I’m happy overall – three swims under 1:07 is really good. If you had told me I would have swam 1:06 I would have been really happy with that. It shows a consistency and that the training is working.”
Thanking everyone who watched from home at 3am, she was the second fastest off the blocks and is aiming for bigger things when it comes to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Making the final was her goal for 2024, and now that she’s done it three years earlier than expected, new goals need to be set for three years time.
