A ‘CONFUSED’ MONA McSharry said she will take the positives from her performance after failing to qualify for the 200m breaststroke final at the World Aquatics Championship.

McSharry finished seventh in her semi-final in Fukuoka on Thursday, and 15th overall, in a time of 2:26.27 — a little more than two seconds outside the Olympic qualifying time.

The Sligo native was in fifth place with 50 metres to swim but was reeled in by faster-finishing rivals down the home stretch.

“I’m confused, I need to see the splits and stuff before I can figure out what happened I guess,” McSharry said.

“It felt better than this morning [in the heats], but roughly the same time.

“I’m quite happy with how I’m taking it out I think, so just look at the positives and hopefully build on it and this is just the first opportunity to qualify it, so hopefully I can get it before the Olympics rolls around.”

Earlier on Thursday, Victoria Catterson finished 26th in the women’s 100m freestyle in 55.56 seconds, John Shortt was 22nd in the men’s 200m backstroke in 1:59.79, and Darragh Greene was 19th in the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2:12.21.

Max McCusker (100m butterfly) and Tom Fannon (50m freestyle) are set to make their world championship debuts on Friday morning, while Danielle Hill is set to race in the women’s 50m butterfly heats.

McSharry returns to action on Saturday for the heats of the 50m breaststroke — which is not an Olympic event — before closing her programme with the relay on Sunday.