Galway’s John Shortt took silver in the Men’s 200m backstroke as team Ireland rounded off a successful Sette Colli International in Rome on Sunday (28th June 2026).
The European and World Junior Champion progressed from the heats in 1:59.68 and improved to 1:57.73 in the final. The event was won by Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov in 1:57.32. The Roscam swimmer also took gold in the 50m B final on Friday.
Ellen Walshe leading the medal charge with a gold and silver double, while Mona McSharry secured a full set of podium finishes across the competition.
Walshe delivered an impressive double to close out the weekend, winning gold in the 200m Butterfly and silver in the 200m Individual Medley, adding to the 400m Individual Medley silver she secured on Saturday. The Templeogue swimmer topped the podium in the 200m Butterfly in 2:08.02, her second-fastest time ever and just outside her Irish record of 2:07.48 set at the 2025 World Championships.
Just an hour later, the 24-year-old was back in action in the 200m Individual Medley, claiming silver in 2:11.40, with the USA’s Alex Walsh taking gold in 2:09.05.
Mona McSharry completed a full set of medals in Rome with gold in the 200m Breaststroke on Sunday, having already secured silver in the 100m Breaststroke and bronze in the 50m Breaststroke earlier in the meet. Turning second at the 150m mark, McSharry powered home in 37.68 to overtake the Netherlands’ Tes Schouten (37.94), touching in 2:22.71, just 0.18 seconds ahead of Schouten’s 2:22.89.
In the final event of the programme, Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen placed sixth in the 1500m Freestyle in 15:17.45 with Nathan Wiffen registering 15:56.86 in the same race.
In the women’s 200m Backstroke, Grace Davison finished eighth in the A Final in 2:14.37, while Lottie Cullen secured third in the B Final in 2:15.08.
National Centre Limerick’s Evan Bailey also impressed, improving on his heats swim of 1:48.72 to clock 1:48.53 and place eighth in the 200m Freestyle Final.
Earlier in the day, Matthew Hamilton set a new Irish Junior record in the 50m Butterfly heats. The Lisburn swimmer broke his own mark of 24.43, set in January, with a time of 24.17.
Focus now turns to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (July 24–29) and the European Aquatics Championships in Paris (August 10–16), with the Ireland team for the Para Swimming European Championships in Turkey due to be announced on July 14.
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Day 3 Results
