Mona McSharry added a third medal to her haul, while Ellen Walshe, Tom Fannon and Ireland’s Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay team of McSharry, Walshe, Lottie Cullen and Grace Davison brought the curtain down on Ireland’s most successful long-course European Championships on Sunday night in Paris. Ireland finished eighth on the medal table with five medals, led by Walshe’s superb double gold and McSharry’s collection of one silver and two bronze medals, capping an outstanding week of racing from a 25-strong Irish team.
McSharry, already a silver medallist in the 100m Breaststroke and bronze medallist in the 200m Breaststroke, produced the swim of her career in the 50m Breaststroke Final. The Sligo swimmer became the first Irish woman to break the 30-second barrier in the event, touching in 29.95 to secure a third medal of the Championships. Her previous best and Irish record had stood at 30.29 since 2023.
The podium was decided by the finest of margins, with just one hundredth of a second separating all three medallists. World record holder Ruta Meilutyte claimed gold in 29.93, Italy’s Benedetta Pilato took silver in 29.94, while McSharry completed the podium in 29.95.
McSharry spoke after the race ‘It’s crazy, I didn’t even realize that (it was so close), I kind of just looked for my own spot and I saw, again, the three little red dots on the block. I was like, oh, wow, I actually did it. I felt really good in that one, I think the heat and semi felt a little off the first 25m, and I was like, I just need to trust myself that I go for it, and I did. I happily got my hand on the wall first, and I think it just shows that you’re never out of the race.’
Double European champion Ellen Walshe came agonisingly close to adding a third medal to her collection, finishing fourth in the 200m Butterfly Final. Already crowned European champion in both the 200m and 400m Individual Medley, Walshe delivered another outstanding performance, breaking her own Irish record with a time of 2:07.40, shaving eight hundredths of a second off the 2:07.48 she posted at last year’s World Championships.
The Templeogue swimmer finished just 0.19 seconds outside the podium. Great Britain’s Keanna MacInnes claimed gold in 2:05.90, Denmark’s Helena Rosendahl Bach took silver in 2:06.14, while Spain’s Laura Cabanes Garzas secured bronze in 2:07.21.
Walshe spoke after the race ‘I’m really delighted, it definitely stung the back end, and I just didn’t have quite enough to catch the Spanish (Garzas). I’m absolutely delighted, I’ve been up the top of all my events this week and that’s unusual, at an international meet to be on prime for all of them, so yeah, absolutely buzzing with the week.’
On her week she added ‘I couldn’t even put it into words. I’ve done 2K in racing and I can feel it today and it’s been incredible, it’s something I probably could never dream of, to stand on the podium not once, but twice, and hearing the anthem, it’s been special.’
In the opening final of the evening, Tom Fannon secured a sixth-place finish in the 50m Freestyle. The Olympic semi-finalist stopped the clock in 21.59, just one hundredth of a second outside the Irish record of 21.58 that he set last month.
Gold went to Ukraine’s Nikita Sherebet in 21.13, while Egor Kornev (Neutral Athlete) and Serbia’s Andrej Barna shared silver in 21.37.
Fannon spoke after the race ‘I’m happy I moved it on, heats, semifinal, got faster every time, I can’t ask for much more, I’m bang on my PB. My PB came from three weeks ago in a non-pressured meet for us, because it was our last meet heading into this, it’s a lot easier to swim without the nerves, so to back it up here, fantastic, but that was a quick final.’
Ireland’s Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay team of Lottie Cullen, McSharry, Walshe and Grace Davison provided a fitting finale to the Championships, demolishing the Irish record of 4:00.12 in 3:57.26. The quartet took almost three seconds off the previous mark set by McSharry, Walshe, Davison and Danielle Hill at the Paris Olympic Games, where Ireland finished eleventh.
In Sunday’s final, Cullen led the team off with the second-fastest backstroke swim of her career, clocking 1:00.64. McSharry once again delivered a strong breaststroke split of 1:04.72, before Walshe produced an outstanding 57.73 butterfly leg. Davison then brought the team home in 54.17 on freestyle, improving on her morning swim as Ireland capped a superb team performance and moved up to sixth place in Europe. The team spoke after the race. Cullen said ‘I’m really happy with that, you know, coming in tonight, I really wanted to put together a good swim and set the girls up well.’ McSharry added ‘I mean we were at that 4-minute barrier for quite some time and it’s really exciting to be able to drop it by 3 seconds, it’s unbelievable and shows were Irish swimming is going’. Walshe said ‘What a way to finish, I think with a relay it’s always something special, it was nice to get out there with the girls. We had good fun in the call room, just singing, dancing and planning our outfits. It was a great way to finish, we all performed to our best tonight, and that’s all we can ask for.’ Davison added ‘I think it’s incredible to get to anchor the relay like that and the girls set it up so well. To say that we’ve come on 3 seconds within 2 years is pretty insane. I think that’s really, really good. Looking forward to LA, we hope to qualify that relay, and this puts us sixth in Europe, it’s really good.’
Across the week, Irish swimmers won five medals, contested ten finals, reached a further twelve semi-finals and set eleven Irish senior records.
Speaking at the conclusion of the Championships, Swim Ireland National Performance Director Andy Reid said ‘This championship has been a fantastic reflection of what Irish swimming is building. The medal performances, Irish Senior Records and breakthrough swims demonstrate real progress on the international stage, but what has impressed me most has been the culture of the team. Across the week we have seen athletes and staff consistently support one another, celebrate each other’s success and bring tremendous energy to every session. The performances in the pool were outstanding, but the professionalism and pride shown by the entire team have been equally important and give us great confidence for the future.’