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Mona McSharry and Ellen Walshe hung their four European Aquatics Championship medals on the wall of their hotel room in Paris on Sunday. As they closed their bedroom door to leave for the final session at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, the medals provided the perfect visual reminder: it had been a long, successful week, but there were more medals there to be won. A few hours later, McSharry delivered Ireland’s fifth podium placing of the week. Then Walshe just missed out on a sixth. McSharry secured her second breaststroke bronze, this time in the 50m final, adding to her third place in the 200m and silver in the 100m. Walshe, who had bagged two individual medley golds, came within a fraction of another podium place in the 200m butterfly. READ MORE She wasn’t upset afterwards. Instead, the 24-year-old reflected on a week that she will always remember. “Yeah, it’s been a couple of books, cups of tea and loads of chats,” she said with a laugh, explaining how rooming with McSharry works. “It’s just been really special. We’ve been able to get each other that racing mindset, which is hard as the days go on and you get more and more fatigued; it’s hard to stay focused. “But we did a really good job this week just trying to help each other, saying, ‘Come on, we do have this’.” The medals on the wall became part of that routine. “That was just a really nice reminder when we hung the medals on the wall, that was the extra reminder when we left, ‘Can we bring another one home tonight?’” Walshe said. McSharry believes their relationship benefited them massively over an exhausting programme of races. “It’s amazing that we are able to have each other at this point,” she said. “We know we want to room together. We know each other so well, and that just takes away a little bit of doubt when we’re away at these competitions. “It’s a long week and knowing you have a roomie you can go back to and you can be quiet or you can be chatty, you can kind of complain if you want to for a second and then know that they’re going to listen and then kick you out of it.” For McSharry, there was another medal to bring home after an extraordinary 50m breaststroke final. Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte, the world record holder, took gold in 29.93, with Italy’s Benedetta Pilato touching just ahead of McSharry. The Sligo swimmer finished in a new Irish record 29.95, one hundredth of a second behind Pilato. There was pride in another podium finish for the Olympic bronze medallist, but also the satisfaction of having again proved that a race is never beyond her. “Oh, it was amazing,” McSharry said. “I saw the three little red dots on the block and thought, ‘Oh wow, I actually did it’. It just shows you’re never out of a race.” Walshe’s final individual event produced another national record but not the medal she had hoped for. She was seventh after the opening half of the 200m butterfly final before beginning her customary late charge. After the final turn, she surged through the field and appeared capable of catching Spain’s Laura Cabanes Garzas for bronze. But the Spaniard held on, touching in 2:07.21, just ahead of Walshe’s 2:07.40. Britain’s Keanna MacInnes won in 2:05.90. “It definitely stung the back end and I didn’t have enough to catch the Spanish,” Walshe said. “But, look, I’m absolutely delighted. I’ve kind of been at the top of all the events this week and that’s kind of unusual at an international meet, so I’m absolutely buzzing. “I couldn’t even put it into words. It’s something I probably could only ever dream of, standing on the podium twice and hearing the anthem, so it’s been a special week.” Team Ireland’s final race brought McSharry and Walshe together in the pool. Alongside Lottie Cullen and Grace Davison, they broke the Irish record in the 4x100m medley relay, finishing sixth in 3:57.26 – almost three seconds quicker than the previous mark. Cullen put Ireland into seventh after the backstroke before McSharry produced a strong breaststroke leg to move the quartet into fourth. Walshe could not quite maintain that position, but Davison brought Ireland home in sixth. Britain won in a championship-record 3:53.50. “Me and the girls were like, ‘Last one’s fast one’ and we had a great time in the call room, singing and dancing,” Walshe said. “It was just a lot of fun. We’re a great place.” There was also a strong performance from Tom Fannon, who finished sixth in the men’s 50m freestyle final. The 28-year-old was just 0.01 outside his Irish record of 21.58, set three weeks earlier, despite having the slowest reaction off the blocks. “I’m happy. I can’t ask for much more,” Fannon said. “I’m bang on my PB [personal best] from three weeks ago in a non-pressured meet. To back it up here, fantastic. It was a quick final, but I have to fix my start. I know that. And if I get better, I’m nearly unstoppable.”