Ellie McCartney was among a team of 16 swimmers who departed Dublin to represent Ireland at the 23rd Edition of the Luxembourg Euro Meet, which took place from Thursday, January 27 to Sunday, January 29, in Luxembourg city.

After a two-year absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Luxembourg Euro picked up right where it left off, with a host of talent from around the world descending upon the Centre National Sportif et Culturel d’Coque.

For Swim Ireland, the Meet is part of a series of offerings of preparation meets into the April trials – Luxembourg Euro Meet, McCullagh International and Edinburgh International. Expectations sit around performance behaviours and processes – if anything were fast, it would be a welcome bonus!

McCartney was the youngest swimmer and she travelled to Luxembourg as part of the National Programme Performance and Performance Transition cohorts competing in five events, progressing to finals in each of them.

In her final event, she narrowly missed out on her first international medal, but returned full of optimism.

Friday morning saw Ellie compete in the 50m Butterfly for the first time outside Ireland, where she smashed her previous best time by more than a second, qualifying her for the B Final that evening.

The 17-year-old returned to the pool to finish second in the B finals, with another PB of 28.13.

On Saturday, the local swimmer swam two more events; in the 50m Freestyle, she finished second in her heat, in a time of 27.62, before returning within the hour for the 200m Breaststroke.

Ellie finished second to Tokyo Olympian Martina Carraro in her heat, and qualified for the A final.

That evening, Ellie finished sixth overall behind another Olympian, and the European Champion.

The final day saw Ellie’s best endeavours in the 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley. The Ards-based club swimmer swam a fantastic 100m Breaststroke heat to qualify for the A final behind European Champion Lisa Mamie.

A super performance followed this in the 200m IM to finish as the fifth seed for the A final. Later that evening, Ellie had to swim the two finals within 25 minutes.

In the 100m Breaststroke, Ellie improved her morning time and finished fifth overall. A short time later, she returned to the 50m pool for the 200m IM. Again, the National Centre Ulster swimmer took the battle to her older and more experienced competitors and was pipped to a medal by just three-tenths of a second, finishing in fourth position and with another PB. It was a great end to a wonderful week.

NCU Head Coach Kevin Anderson said: “This was Ellie’s best in-season results.

“After a very good 100m Breaststroke final, she had about 20 minutes to rush to the cooldown pool to try and recover, and then straight back up for the 200m IM final where she smashed it, swimming a personal best time for fourth place overall.

“It was great all-round swimming for the National Centre Ulster swimmers.”