Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry concluded their hugely successful World Siwmming Aquatics World Cup Tour with another pair of silver medals and new Irish records, in the 200m individual medley and 50m breaststroke, respectively.
It Walshe's sixth Irish record and seventh medal of the three-part short-course event while McSharry broke her fifth national record and won her fifth medal.
Prior to 2025, only four medals in total had been won by Ireland on the World Cup circuit, including a silver and bronze by McSharry in Budapest in 2023.
Walshe, who had won medals and set records across the 200m butterfly and 400m IM over the past two weeks, swam to her first podium finish of the series in the 200m individual medley on Saturday night in Toronto, breaking her own 2024 Irish Record of 2 minutes 5.52 seconds in 2:04.75.
The USA's Alex Walshe won the event for the third week and claimed the 'triple crown’ in 2:04.01, while Great Britain’s Abbie Wood was third in 2:05.33.
Walshe, who was named in Ireland’s European Championships (25m) team earlier this week, will head to Poland full of confidence, having won two gold (400m IM), four silver (200m IM, 400m IM, 200m butterfly x 2) and one bronze (200m butterfly) over the past three weekends.
The 24-year-old Dubliner is well on course to exceed the 15 Irish records she set during the 2024 short-course season, having already set new marks in the 200m butterfly (x3), 400m IM (x2) and 200m IM (x1) so far this season.
McSharry picked up her third silver medal of the series in a new Irish record of 29.58 in the 50m breaststroke, knocking one hundredth of a second off her own 2021 standard of 29.59. In Westmont last week, McSharry had won gold and equalled that record.
Belgium’s Florine Gaspard won gold in last nights’ final in 29.48, with Japan’s Satomi Suzuki third in 29.90. The three were the only swimmers under the 30 second mark.
The Olympic bronze medallist (100m breaststroke) leaves the World Cups with gold in the 50m breaststroke, silvers in the 50m and 100m (twice) breaststroke and bronze in the 200m breaststroke.
She broke the 50m breaststroke Irish record, the 100m record and the 200m record three times.
Their feats mean Ireland now have two swimmers ranked in the top ten: Walshe in ninth and McSharry tenth.
Irish swimmers will now look ahead to the European Championships (25m) in Lublin, Poland from 2 to 7 December and the Irish Winter Championships in Dublin from 12-14 December.
