European U23 Champion and bronze medallist Ellie McCartney qualified for yet another Final in Samorin, while Mona McSharry and Ellen Walshe are both in the mix for medals on the final day of racing at both the European U23 Swimming Championships and Sette Colli International.
With gold and bronze already packed in her bag ahead of a return to Ireland on Sunday, Ellie McCartney will have a chance at another medal as top seed in Saturday evening’s 200m Breaststroke Final in Slovakia.
McCartney had a strong showing in the heats clocking 2:28.07, the fastest of all competitors, and will take the centre lane for the final at 17.03 (IRL).
In Rome, Mona McSharry was also racing the 200m Breaststroke. The Olympic medallist also advancing as the top seed to the final in 2:25.93.
Both McSharry and McCartney are preparing to race the event at the World Championships next month.
Ellen Walshe had a busy morning in Rome competing in both the 200m Butterfly and 200m Individual Medley. The Templeogue swimmer advanced to finals in both events, clocking 2:12.16 for sixth overall in the 200m Butterfly and 2:14.46 in the 200m Individual Medley for third overall.
Seven other Irish swimmers closed out their European U23 Championships in this morning’s heats. Last night’s silver medallist in the 200m Breaststroke, Eoin Corby, just missed out in the 100m Breaststroke placing ninth overall in 1:01.75, he will be first reserve for this evening’s final. Lottie Cullen and Maria Godden clocked 2:16.83 and 2:17.01 respectively in the 200m Backstroke. Ireland had three competitors in the 100m Freestyle, Evan Bailey the fastest of the trio in 49.75, ahead of Cormac Rynn (51.14) and Oisin Tebite (52.34), while Brandon Biss touched in 58 seconds in the 100m Backstroke.
Bailey, Corby and Rynn, along with Jack Cassin, will now look ahead to the Singapore World Championships (27th July – 4th August) and Cullen to the World University Games (17th-23rd July), while Biss, Tebite and Godden will compete at the Irish Youth and Senior Championships (23rd – 27th July).
Ellie McCartney made it a full set of medals with a sensational silver in the 200m Breaststroke at the European U23 Championships, Ellen Walshe comes away from Rome also with a full set, while Mona McSharry claimed a second silver.
In Samorin, Slovakia, McCartney added the Breaststroke silver to gold in the 200m Individual Medley and bronze in the 100m Breaststroke on the final day of racing.
A controlled race from the National Centre Limerick swimmer saw her third after 100m behind Denmark’s Clara Rybek-Anderson and Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterekova, before mounting her come back, out splitting both swimmers ahead of her in the second 100 metres, but just not enough time to catch 2024 European silver medallist in the event Rybek-Anderson who got the touch ahead of McCartney in 2:23.89, just .13 ahead of a personal best from the Enniskillen woman in 2:24.02. Teterekova settled for third in 2:24.86.
Speaking after the race McCartney said, “I’m happy with how the past few days have panned out, in the general scale of things this is only one step forward to the World Championships in Singapore. Its bittersweet being so close to getting gold again, but to get a pb, I know I put my best foot forward and my best performance out there, and to walk away a European U23 Champion is more than I could have dreamed of. I’ve achieved my goals that I wanted to while I was here and anything else was a bonus, so I’m walking away with my head held high.”
In Rome, Ellen Walshe doubled up with a silver and bronze medal on the last night of racing. Having won gold in the 400m Individual Medley on Friday, the Templeogue swimmer added silver in the 200m Butterfly in 2:09.59 and bronze in the 200m Individual Medley in 2:11.80 to her haul.
For McSharry, it was a second silver medal, having won the first in the 100m Breaststroke on Thursday, she clocked 2:25.05 for her second, this time in the 200m Breaststroke.
Attention for McCartney, McSharry and Walshe now turns to the World Aquatics Championships starting on the 27th of July in Singapore.
The European U23 Team will arrive back to Dublin Airport on Sunday at 1.45pm.
Next up for Irish swimmers is the European Junior Championships, taking place in Samorin, Slovakia, at the same venue as the European U23 Championships. The competition will run from Tuesday 1st to Sunday 6th July with sixteen Irish swimmers selected. The team include 2024 European Junior Champion in the 200m Backstroke and Silver medallist in the 100m Backstroke John Shortt, and bronze medallist in the 100m Freestyle from the last edition Paris 2024 Olympian Grace Davison. Shortt is also qualified for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
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