NI's McCartney qualifies for World Championships
Ellie McCartney produced the swim of her career so far to qualify for the World Championships in Singapore in July.The 20-year-old from Enniskillen stormed to victory in the 200m breaststroke semi-finals in a time of 2:24.35 which was huge personal best, a championship record and well inside the 'A' time for the worlds, set at 2:25.91.As a junior McCartney had given notice of her potential at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad & Tobago when she won two golds and a bronze, before later that summer also winning a bronze at the European Junior Championships.On Monday, she had chased Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry all the way home in the 100m breaststroke final, losing out by just one-tenth of a second.
'I've been aiming for that time'
"I'm so excited to get that 'A' time on my first chance in a World Championship trials," said McCartney. "I've really been aiming for that time. Me and my coach, since the start of this year we knew it was doable, but I never thought I'd be that far under it."I don't like setting my expectations too high. I prefer to trust the process and I have days where I think I can do it, I have days where I'm like, what if I just miss out, but I just wanted to make sure I left everything in the pool and that's when I can be happy and to be this far under, it's mind-blowing for me."McCartney also has qualification times for the European under-23s, and the World University Games and she'll now have to plan out a summer with the worlds included, so it's likely she will have to choose only one of the first two events.She joins Ulster swimmers Daniel Wiffen and Danielle Hill as well as Mona McSharry, Ellen Walshe, Tom Fannon and John Shortt as those with the consideration times for Ireland for the event in Singapore."It's been years since I've been able to race Mona and to be closer, I've never had that chance before and racing her is always such a privilege and seeing the likes of Jack McMillan, Daniel, Danielle and Mona all coming from similar routes, it's inspiring", she added."It's what makes me want to be better."
Walshe smashes twice smashes Irish record
Double Olympian Ellen Walshe, who set a new Irish record of 1:59.31 in the morning heats of the 200m freestyle, became the first Irishwoman under 1:59 as she clocked 1:58.88 in the semi-final.The Templeogue swimmer is still to compete in her main event, the 400m Individual Medley, where she is an Olympic finalist.National Centre Ulster's Lottie Cullen claimed the 200m backstroke title. Cullen, already having achieved consideration times for the European U23 Championships and World University Games, completed the backstroke double, adding to the 100m gold she won on Sunday. Cullen touched in 2:14.67.Daniel and Nathan Wiffen lead the qualifiers for Wednesday's 1500m Freestyle final after the duo eased through the heats in 16:15.99 and 16:19.39 respectively.
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