Mona McSharry claims her third medal of European Championships

Ellen Walshe finished fourth in the final of the 200m butterfly.

Mona McSharry won bronze for Ireland in the 50 breaststroke at the European Aquatics Championships. Pic:©INPHO/Andrea Masini

Mona McSharry claimed her third medal of the European Aquatics Championships on Sunday evening, taking bronze in the 50m breaststroke final. McSharry, going from lane one, swam 29.95, a new Irish record and her first time under 30 seconds for the event. 

It was also just 0.02 behind winner Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania and 0.01 off silver medallist Benedetta Pilato of Italy. Sunday's bronze adds to the silver she had already won in the 100m breaststroke and the bronze claimed in the 200m breaststroke. 

"Just amazing," said the Sligo swimmer.

"The goal going in was a 29 [second swim]. I was like, 'medal would be great, but like, I just, I know I can do it'.

"The fact that I was able to get both is just... it just clicked that first 25.

"I'm very happy. It's been a stacked week and it's good to be able to show myself that I can perform back to back. I think the relay this morning kind of rejuvenated me. That was great."

Ellen Walshe narrowly missed out on what would have been her third medal of the week. The Templeogue swimmer finished fourth in the final of the 200m butterfly. Walshe had already won gold in both the 200m and 400m individual medley events. She swam 2:07.40 on Sunday evening, finishing just 0.19 behind bronze medallist Laura Cabanes Garzas of Spain. Denmark's Helena Bach took silver in 2:06.14 with Great Britain's Keana MacInnes winning in 2:05.90. 

Tom Fannon finished sixth in the 50m freestyle final, swimming 21.59. The 'splash and dash' was won by Ukraine's Nikita Sheremet, who touched the wall in 21.13. There was a dead heat for silver between Egor Kornev and Andrej Barna, both swimming 21.37. Fannon's time was just 0.01 outside his Irish record. 

McSharry and Walshe were back in the pool for the 4x100m medley relay final, along with Ellie McCartney and Grace Davison, later in the evening. The quartet smashed the Irish record by nearly three seconds as they finished sixth in 3:57.26.