Ellie McCartney claimed seven gold medals while Niamh O’Kane achieved two Irish Age Group Division Two qualifying times at the City of Liverpool Swimming Club Winter Meet Plus which took place at the 50m Liverpool Aquatics Centre at Wavertree.

The two Enniskillen Lakelanders flew to Liverpool last week with their families to take part in the annual competition which is Level One standard. Medals were awarded to all age groups from 9-14 years of age and 15 and over. Almost 20 teams competed from all over the North of England as well Wales and Ireland.

Ellie McCartney, aged 9, had to achieve 10 year old qualifying times for the events she had entered – seven in total. The Saturday morning event for Ellie was the 400m freestyle which she had never competed in a 50m pool before but still managed a fantastic personal best to win a gold medal in her age group. This was followed in the afternoon with the 200m breaststroke – Ellie’s favourite. She won this easily and her time would have also secured gold in the older age group as well. The was closely followed by a third gold in the 100m butterfly – nine seconds ahead of the next swimmer. Sunday began the way Saturday had finished with another gold medal in the 100m freestyle – 12 seconds ahead of second place.

Ellie swam a fantastic 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:31.85 to win her fifth gold, which would have also given her a medal in the 10 year old and 11 year old age groups. Sunday afternoon saw the toughest two races for Ellie; The 200m Individual Medley followed by the 400m Individual Medley.

After five competitive events over the gala Ellie was able to produce two new Personal Bests, Irish Age Group Division Two times and won gold in both events leaving her with seven gold medals from seven events.

On Saturday morning in her first of her four weekend events, Niamh O’Kane achieved a new Personal Best and narrowly missed out on a top 10 place in the 100m backstroke. She followed that up in her second and third events with two Irish Age Group Division Two times in the 100m butterfly where she had an eighth place finish and also in the 100m freestyle, in a time of 1:15.4. On Sunday afternoon, 0.6 of a second separated her from achieving her third Irish Age Group Division Two qualifying time of the weekend in the 200m freestyle when she clocked a time of 2:47.26 but with two Division Two qualifying times under her belt she was more than happy with her weekend’s work.