{"id":593717,"date":"2026-08-15T04:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/593717\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T04:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:16:13","slug":"mona-mcsharry-produces-brilliant-finish-to-win-bronze-in-200m-breaststroke-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/593717\/","title":{"rendered":"Mona McSharry produces brilliant finish to win bronze in 200m breaststroke \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mona McSharry<\/a> added a second European Aquatics Championship<\/a> medal to her collection in Paris on Friday night, while Ellen Walshe<\/a> kept alive the prospect of another gold after reaching the 200m individual medley final.<\/p>\n

McSharry produced a brilliant final 50m to overhaul Dutch rival Tes Schouten by 0.24 seconds and claim bronze in the 200m breaststroke, 48 hours after taking silver in the 100m.<\/p>\n

McSharry had spent most of the race in fourth before producing her decisive finish. <\/p>\n

Evgeniia Chikunova, competing as a neutral athlete, won gold in a championship-record 2:19.32, with Britain\u2019s Angharad Evans second.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d McSharry said. \u201cI was definitely burning up on the last 50, I could see Evans beside me but couldn\u2019t see anything else. I was hanging on for dear life and I\u2019m glad I was on the right side of a tight finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of similar to Paris [two years ago], they have the little red lights on the box now and immediately I was swinging my head around to see if there were three dots, two dots, one dot, so that\u2019s the immediate gratification.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Sligo swimmer, who won Ireland\u2019s first medal of the Paris Olympics in 2024, touched in 2:22.43, just outside the Irish record of 2:22.22 she set in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Paris is a good city for me, I should just move here,\u201d McSharry laughed. \u201cIt does have the same kind of feel. Having my family here to support me really made it feel a lot similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to soak it in as much as possible because I feel like I\u2019ve had times in the past when I haven\u2019t done so. So I looked into the crowd, seeing all the Irish flags and looking at our team standing there, it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

McSharry admitted she had been nervous before the race. \u201cAs Ellen [Walshe] would say I was fighting demons during that one. Not the time I wanted, but I\u2019m happy,\u201d she said. \u201cI was definitely very nervous about the race, but that\u2019s just built up myself because I know I can be really fast in the 200.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in general I do feel like I\u2019m trying to keep the expectations lower, knowing that I did achieve an Olympic medal and a podium. I don\u2019t want to cripple myself with the weight of trying to achieve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0In 22 magical minutes, Mark English and Rhasidat Adeleke had sealed their legaciesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Racing alongside McSharry, Ellie McCartney finished eighth in the final before placing sixth in her 200m IM semi-final.<\/p>\n

Walshe competed in the same race and reached Saturday\u2019s final after finishing third in 2:11.26. The newly crowned European 400m IM champion had led until the final turn after returning from a day off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to build through the rounds today and that\u2019s exactly what I did,\u201d she said. \u201cI guess the final will be fun tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walshe will first contest the 200m butterfly heats on Saturday morning before the IM final at 5.47pm.<\/p>\n

Daniel Wiffen<\/a> also secured another medal opportunity, qualifying fifth-fastest for the 1500m freestyle final after finishing second in his heat behind Germany\u2019s Oliver Klemet. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about keeping cool, basically,\u201d Wiffen said. \u201cFor the 800 I was just sweating. Sleep, nutrition and hydration are the go-tos. Plus, I\u2019m not in the best shape and I have to take that into account. Yeah, we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

His twin, Nathan, was eighth in the final heat. The final starts at 6.20pm on Saturday. <\/p>\n

Danielle Hill and Grace Davision qualified for the 100m backstroke semi-finals, with Lottie Cullen missing out on the two-per-nation rule, while Jack Cassin finished eighth in the 200m butterfly semi-final.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0European Athletics and Swimming Championships: Complete guide to the Irish in actionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Rosalie Phelan was 30th in the 50m freestyle heats, while Ireland\u2019s four 50m breaststroke swimmers all missed out on the semi-finals. Jack Kelly was closest in 27.37, with Darragh Greene, Adam Bradley and Eoin Corby also failing to advance.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s action begins with Tom Fannon and Matthew Hamilton in the men\u2019s 50m freestyle at 8.30am, followed by Walshe and Alana Burns-Atkin in the women\u2019s 200m butterfly at 8.48am. John Shortt races the 100m backstroke at 9.01am, with McSharry in the 50m breaststroke at 9.24am. Cassin, Jacob Armon and Liam Custer contest the 200m IM at 9.36am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mona McSharry added a second European Aquatics Championship medal to her collection in Paris on Friday night, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[41544,94939,42,98096,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-593717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-daniel-wiffen","tag-ellen-walshe","tag-headlines","tag-mona-mcsharry","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}