There were a number of top swims from the Enniskillen Lakelanders at the annual Trojan Gala in the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.

Indeed, some of the swimmers were making their debut at the home of Irish swimming and all performed admirably in the face of top class competition from thought the island of Ireland.

It was another great gala for up and coming nine-year-old Ellie McCartney who was competing in six events and came home with three gold medals and a silver.

She began the day with a new personal best and a gold medal in the 50m backcrawl. Next up was 50m of her favourite stroke: breaststroke. Ellie knocked five seconds off the previous meet record set in 2009 to win gold with a time of 41.42. Ellie then competed in the 12 and under 100m breaststroke achieving sixth place – the only nine year old in the top 10, with the others all being 12 years of age.

After lunch, Ellie recorded a personal best time in the 100m Individual Medley followed by another gold in the 50m freestyle while knocking 1.5 seconds off the record for the meet. The Ulster Champion finished the day narrowly missing out on her fourth gold of the day when she collected silver with another personal best in 50m butterfly.

Another nine-year-old, Jake Cadden, was competing in his first major competition of his first year swimming competitively and was looking for qualifying times. Jake wasn’t fazed about swimming in the huge national sports arena and just missed out on first place in the 50m backstroke but was happy to lift the silver medal to bring home to Fermanagh. Due to an error in the times entered, Jake had to swim in the fastest heat of the 100m backstroke and was lining up against 12 to 19 year olds. Jake got a new PB by seven seconds and finished as the top nine year old but missed out on a qualifying time. He finished the day with a confident swim in the 100m breaststroke showing that he has more to give this season.

Another swimmer in his first year, Ben Lynch (11) obtained his second qualifying time in 100m backcrawl and narrowly missed out on a third in 100m freestyle by less than two seconds.

Lewis McCartney won the clash of the Lakelanders in a heat of the 100m freestyle along with team-mates Kealan McShea and Oisin McCaffrey McManus. Lewis achieved his Irish Age Group Division Two time in this popular stroke along with a top nine finish in the 50m breaststroke.

Oisin also got the Division Two time along with top 10 finishes in the 100m backcrawl and 50m butterfly. Kealan gave strong performances in his backstroke and freestyle events.

Dara Flanagan competed for the first time in a national gala and achieved a personal best in each of his three events. Kealan, Dara, Oisin and Lewis entered the 200m relay as a team of four and finished a very creditable fourth out of nine teams.

Rachel Evans returned from her Easter break with renewed vigour and smashed almost six seconds off her personal best to obtain an IAG Division Two time in the 100m freestyle. Caitlin Love won her 100m butterfly heat and finished seventh overall in the open section. She also obtained PBs in all four of her events.

Laura McCaffrey swam at the NAC for the first time and recorded a PB in the 100m backcrawl and followed this up with top 10 finishes in the 50m backcrawl, 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

Rhiannon Dolan also improved her time by almost two seconds in the 100m backcrawl and narrowly missed out on Division Two times in her two other events.

As always for these young swimmers, the experience gained will be valuable as the season enters the final few months. Coaches are working on 16 week plans so that they can reach their potential at Irish Nationals in June and July.

Next week sees the visit of Olympia, Belfast, to the Forum for our fourth AquaSprint on Saturday night and many of the juniors and intermediate swimmers will return on Sunday morning for the final of the South West Minor League where the Lakelanders have an outside chance of being champions as well as having many swimmers having medal chances in most age groups.