Max McCusker breaks Irish record but narrowly misses out on place in semi-finals

A bittersweet morning for Max McCusker saw him break the Irish 100 metres butterfly record at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, only to then miss out on the semi-finals by one place.

Swimming in the last of the eight heats, McCusker equalled Shane Ryan’s mark of 52.52, set at the Tokyo Olympics, touching home in sixth.

The result also saw the 24-year-old from Cork finish in equal 16th place, with a swim-off then required with South Africa’s Matthew Sates to determine who would get to swim the semi-final.

McCusker came out fighting, swimming his second personal best of the day, and a new Irish record of 52.31, but Sates took the win and secured the last semi-final place, clocking 51.80.

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“First time getting a personal best in that event for two years now, so it was quite emotional,” said McCusker. “Obviously, I wanted to make the semi-final, but that’s not the focus here so I’m happy with it. I feel like I’m only learning the race again.

“I feel very confident for the relay, we’ve got a good group of boys so the moral’s quite high for that, I think we’ll go in there and we can put ourselves in the mix for a final.”

McCusker is just .64 of a second away from the Olympic qualification time of 51.67, and the Dolphin SC swimmer returns to the pool on Sunday for the heats of the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

Maria Godden and Tom Fannon just also missed semi-final places. Godden closed out her first World Championships with a 17th place finish in the 200m backstroke. Just outside her best of 2:12.19, she clocked 2:13.30 and will be first reserve for this evening’s semi-finals.

In the 50m freestyle, Fannon was just one-tenth of a second outside of the semi-final, touching in 22.23 for 24th place overall.

“I’m a bit disappointed, I won’t lie,” he said. “Training’s been going well, I’ve been fast in training, lifting well, so the prep was there, everything was there. The swim felt good, so I’m going to have to go back and just figure out what went wrong and where.”

Fannon has a Paris qualifying time of 21.95, although not in a designated meet, but will have three further opportunities to secure the time at the Irish Open in May.

The attention now turns back to Mona McSharry, who swims in her second final of the week, the 200m breaststroke (4.49pm Irish time).

Although considered her next best event after the 100m breaststroke, where she finished fifth in Tuesday’s final, leaving her “gutted” afterwards, McSharry has now given herself another fighting chance of making the podium, progressing to this evening’s final ranked seventh fastest.

McSharry has something to aim for besides a medal, the Sligo swimmer also looking to secure a Paris qualification time in this event, to go with the 100m breaststroke. The 23-year-old will be targetting a time of 2:23.91 to book that place.

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