Double gold: Ellen Walshe wins second individual medley title at European Championships

Mona McSharry has qualified for the final of the 50m breaststroke as she bids for a third medal at the championships

Ireland's Ellen Walshe won her second gold medal of the European Aquatics Championships in the 200m individual medley. Pic: Ewan Gavet/Sportsfile

Ellen Walshe claimed her second gold medal of the European Aquatics Championships on Saturday evening, adding the 200m individual medley title to the 400m individual medley gold she won on Wednesday.

Walshe swam 2:09.81 from lane 1, finishing 0.26 ahead of Italy's Anita Gastaldi in second, and 0.29 ahead of Roos Vanotterdijk of Belgium in third.

The Templeogue swimmer was seventh after the butterfly and sixth when she touched the wall after the backstroke 50m. It was in the breaststroke and freestyle legs - just like the longer event on Wednesday - that her bid for a medal came alive. 

"I actually can't believe it," she said,

"I don't know how I was feeling coming into it but... I don't even know honestly, I'm just so shocked."

Walshe turned after the breaststroke leg in fifth but 25m later, it was clear she was on course for gold. 

Asked what she was feeling after the penultimate leg, Walshe said: "Oh just the underwater 15 hopefully, or somewhere around, that just to give myself maybe a bit of a boost and I just kicked the whole way home."

In a busy evening for Walshe in Paris, she will also go in the 200m butterfly semi-final at 6:56pm. 

Tom Fannon qualified for the final of the 50m freestyle final when he finished fifth in his semi-final and sixth overall. Shortly after, Mona McSharry qualified for the 50m breaststroke final when she came third in her semi-final and seventh overall. McSharry has already won silver in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

"It was okay," McSharry said about her semi-final performance.

"Obviously, a little bit slower, which was not the plan. I was hoping I could go faster than this morning, but we have another shot tomorrow, and we're back in the final, so I just have to be happy with that and kind of not dwell on that race and just focus on how to make it better."

McSharry was able to watch Walshe win gold before she got in the pool. 

"It was great," she said.

"Thankfully, we had the TV in the call room, so I was watching, and oh, just buzzing for her. I mean, that's absolutely amazing. And again, just the underwaters off that last turn is just unbelievable. It's so great.

"I think it just gets me really excited, and I think just honestly in a happy mood because I obviously want to... She's a really good friend of mine, so I want to see her do well, but like anyone on the Irish team, when you see them do well, it kind of just spurs you on to also do well."

Daniel Wiffen, bronze medallist in the 1500m at the Olympics two years ago, finished eighth in the final of the event on Saturday.