(Sportcom) – Mary-Sophie Harvey was swimming for the first time in her career in a FINA World Championships final on Sunday. The swimmer from Trois-Rivières took eighth place in the ultimate 200m medley race in Budapest, Hungary.
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Slightly disappointed with her result, Harvey still wanted to put things into perspective quite quickly by mentioning the positive points of the last two days of competition, which were very emotional.
“I can’t be mad at myself as it was my first experience in the final. I see that I am progressing and heading in the right direction. It’s not the time or the ranking that I was aiming for, but I’m happy to have achieved my goal of swimming my first final as a senior,” commented Harvey.
“It was two intense days, but really interesting for me. I learned a lot and I look forward to continuing to work on the details that I am missing to continue my progress.
The final was won by American Alex Walsh in a time of 2 min 7.13 s, just ahead of Australian Kaylee McKeown (+1.44 seconds) who took the silver medal.
Third place went to American Leah Hayes (+1.78 seconds), who had to work hard the day before to win ahead of Mary-Sophie Harvey in the semi-finals. Hayes, just 16, broke the world junior record in the final with a time of 2:8.91.
To reach the ultimate race, Harvey had finished in second place in his semi-final heat. She was also second in her qualifying group, just behind Walsh.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better day yesterday (Saturday). I achieved a personal best in qualifying, I think it was my favorite 200m medley ever! In the semi-final, I really wanted to advance to the final and it was again a success, I even beat my qualifying time,” added Harvey.
The 200m medley was the only individual event in which Mary-Sophie Harvey competed at the World Championships in Budapest. She will now want to recover from her emotions before turning her attention to the 4 x 200m freestyle relay which she would like to participate in on Wednesday.
“I want to take time to relax tomorrow morning. After that, it will be a quick enough return to training to perhaps participate in Wednesday’s relay. Otherwise, the training will serve me for the Commonwealth Games which are fast approaching,” she concluded, adding a “Go Canada!” felt good.
The swimming events at the FINA World Championships will continue on Monday for Quebecers as James Dergousoff will be in action during the qualifications for the 50m breaststroke.