Mona McSharry bags gold at Irish Open - and books ticket to World Championships

Mona McSharry won her latest Irish 100m breaststroke title - and copper-fastened her spot at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in the process.

The Marlins Swimming Club ace won the final at the 2025 Irish Open Swimming Championships in 1:06.87.

Out of lane 5, Olympic bronze medallist McSharry staved off Ellie McCartney, who was the fastest qualifier from Sunday’s semi-finals when finishing in 1:07.00

McSharry turned for home in 31.70 seconds and was 0.1 of a second ahead of Limerick swimmer McCartney at the finish at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre.

Niamh Coyne came home in third in 1:09.50 while Letterkenny woman and Swilly Seals representative Molly Nulty was eighth, touching the wall in 1:13.33.

McSharry came through her semi-final on Sunday afternoon in 1:07.24 after breezing her heat in 1:07.53.

McSharry, of course, has gone faster, with her Irish 100m breaststroke record, clocked at last summer’s Olympic Games, standing at 1:05.51.

The Grange native was making her return to Irish water after taking a break post Olympics and it was a familiar sight as the 24-year-old topped the podium.

After winning that Olympic bronze in Paris, McSharry took some time off and was five months out of competitive action in the pool before returning to action with the University of Tennessee.

Her Olympic performance met the qualification time for the World Championships, but McSharry still had to show her worth to be guaranteed a place in Singapore.

Last July, at Paris La Défense Arena, McSharry - who was eighth in the 100m breaststroke final at the previous edition of the Olympic Games in Tokyo - won Ireland’s first Olympic swimming medal in 28 years, bridging a gap to the since-tainted haul landed by Michelle Smith in Atlanta in 1996.

McSharry finished in 1:05.59, beaten only by Tatjana Smith of South Africa and China's Tang Qianting on the Olympic podium before leaving the pool and everyone bar her friend Roisin and Luna, a rescue American pit bull terrier, with whom she travelled across the United States in 66-day van journey.

Earlier this year, McSharry ended her collegiate eligibility when winning silver in the 100-yard breaststroke at the NCAA Division 1 Swimming Championships, where she was also fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke and helped the University of Tennessee Lady Vols to silver in the 400 medley relay.

McSharry has no plan yet for what happens when the calendar turns into 2026. The 2028 Olympic Games are possible, but not definite. She’s back in Tennessee to complete a Masters in Agriculture, Leadership, Education, and Communication. 

Beyond that, who knows?

“I just don’t have any huge goals at the moment and I think that’s allowing me to be free of kind of those pressure and still be able to train and push myself,” she said recently.

“I’m not going to commit myself to Los Angeles like I did for Paris and push through. Maybe if I’m a year out from Los Angeles then I’ll be ‘okay, I’m going to LA.’”

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Operating out of lane 1, Nulty will have gained valuable experience. Nulty, who attends the National Centre Ulster, came out of her heat in 1:13.68 and booked a final spot when going 1:12.55 in the semi-final.