MONA McSharry was on form once more this evening at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre as she powered through the heats of the 200m Breaststroke this evening, finishing in a time of 2:25.08 to set a new Irish Senior Record and a new Personal Best.
The Sligo native has had an incredible run in the pool this week, reaching the final of the 100m Breaststroke where she finished in 8th position. This evening’s time however, did not secure a semi-final berth for the swimmer, as she finished in 20th place overall.
Elsewhere, Nhat Nguyen’s Olympic journey came to a close this evening following a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Tzu-Wei Wang (TPE) after a thrilling and extremely close match.
BADMINTON
Nhat Nguyen’s Olympic journey came to an end after a 2-1 defeat to the number ten seed, Tzu-Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei. It was a performance to be proud of by the 21-year old, who tested his opponent’s limits all the way through their final group game.
Wang took command of the first set early on, racing into a 6-1 lead, but Nguyen responded to the challenge – fighting back to within one point. A steady gap grew once again with his opponent taking charge of the court and winning the set 21-12.
Nguyen responded in kind in set two, opening the same five-point gap, before a gruelling battle took place in the 20 minutes that followed. The set drawing level at 15-all could have proved costly, but composure beyond his years carried the Irishman through to a 21-18 win.
A winner-takes-all set three followed which saw both players exchanging points, and the game drawing level at almost every score until it reached 11 apiece. Wang’s experience prevailed though and a closing set of 21-12 saw him progress on to the round of 16.
Speaking afterwards, Nguyen was content and motivated by his performance saying: “I have no regrets, I wanted to leave it all on the court and I felt I left it all on the court, fighting and jumping around for every point.”
Looking to the future Nguyen added he would be able to “use this experience for his next couple of Olympics.”
SWIMMING
Following her historic qualification for the 100m Breaststroke final earlier in the week, Team Ireland’s Mona McSharry returned to the pool this evening for her second event, the 200m Breaststroke, where she set a new Irish Senior Record and a new Personal Best finishing 2nd in her heat and 20th overall in a time of 2:25.08.
Entering this evening’s event ranked 28th (compared to 11th for the 100m), McSharry swam a super race to secure a new Irish Senior Record and a Personal Best, but her time was not quite enough to see her progress to the semi-finals.
“It felt really good,” she said afterwards. “I didn’t burn up and sometimes, you can swim a good 200m and it burns and sometimes it doesn’t so I never really know what feels like a good time – so to turn around and see a 2:25.08 and a new PB is amazing.
“This isn’t an event I am focusing on at the moment, I definitely want to in the future but to be able to just put out times like that and put together a good race is really great. And if that’s the way that ends this competition then I’m really happy with that.”
