Mona wins four gold medals at Irish Open
MONA McSharry was the toast of Ireland yet again at the Irish Open Swimming Championships last week winning four gold medals and setting a new 50m Freestyle record..
Taking place over five days in the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, the competition is the highlight of the Irish swimming calendar.
On Saturday, Ireland’s 50m Freestyle Irish Record was twice broken today on opposite sides of the world as Danielle Hill first and then Mona took hundredths of a second each from McSharry’s February standard of 25.60. Hill was swimming in the 50m Freestyle Final at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and touched in 25.56 for a record that lasted just 8 hours, McSharry winning the Final in Dublin in 25.54.
The Marlins swimmer, who collected her fourth gold of the week said: ‘I was really happy to get that record in February so to be able to maintain it is fantastic. It’s been a good week and I’m looking forward to getting ready for the summer internationals now.”
On Friday Mona collected her second and third golds of the meet in the 100m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke. McSharry, who won the 100m Breaststroke earlier in the week, was the first Irish swimmer home in the 100m Freestyle in 56.85 going on to win the 50m Breaststroke Final just a short time later in 31.45.
The 17-year-old Grange native and Marlins Club member was joined at the championships by brother Mouric who was also setting fantastic times.
In the 50m free junior final he swam a time of 25.74, just .24 added to his morning’s pb heat swim.
He was also 4th in the 200m Breaststroke junior final with a PB of 2.32.46.
Ballyshannon’s Marlins Swim Club were congratulating the fantastic performances at the Championships by Mona and Mouric. SLIGO Swimming Club had 6 swimmers competing at the 2018 Irish Open Swimming Championships last week.
The club didn’t win any individual medals, however they did win Bronze in the mixed 4x100m Medley Relay.
The swimmers were Carrie Mc- Daid (backstroke), Jade Murphy (breaststroke), Ronan Anderson (butterfly) and Eanna O’Hara (freestyle).
15-year-old Wicktoria Weinert qualified for the junior final of the 200m breaststroke and swam an impressive time of 2:55.52 to finish in 8th place.