McCartney Advances to Individual Medley Final at European Championships

Ireland’s Ellie McCartney has progressed to the 200m Individual Medley Final after a second-place finish in the semi-final at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

The National Centre Ulster and Ards swimmer equalled her personal best time of 2:14.93 from the Irish Open Championships in April to secure her place in tomorrow’s final as the fourth fastest qualifier.

Great Britain’s Leah Schlossan is the fastest qualifier for the final in 2:13.30, with just .70 of a second then separating second to fourth place.

This morning, McCartney had also contested the 100m Breaststroke heats where she clocked 1:12.02.

Also, in action in the 200m IM semi-final was Ards’ Grace Davison, Davison improved her time from the heats of 2:19.24 to 2:17.90 to finish in eleventh place overall.

John Shortt, who yesterday finished fourth in the 200m Backstroke Final, progressed to the semi-final of the 100m event today. The National Centre Limerick swimmer was eleventh over in 55.93, his third fastest time ever.

In the 100m Breaststroke, Molly Mayne had progressed to the semi-final in seventeenth place overall, the Templeogue SC member improved that ranking to sixteenth in the semi-final in 1:11.37.

Earlier today, Evan Bailey (51.72), Oisin Tebite (51.72), Conor Fitzgerald (52.08) and Adam Colgan (53.60) all competed in the 100m Freestyle. Bailey (25.23), Fitzgerald (25.51) and Colgan (25.87) also swam in the 50m Butterfly with Dylan Registe (25.19).

Cora Rooney clocked 1:05.71 in the 100m Backstroke while Alana Burns-Atkin touched in 28.60 in the 50m Butterfly and 2:27.66 in the 200m Individual Medley.

The final day of racing in Belgrade will see an Ireland team of Rooney, Mayne, Burns-Atkin and Davison compete in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay as well as McCartney’s 200m Individual Medley Final.

Day 5 Results:

100m Freestyle Oisin Tebite 51.72 (41)

Evan Bailey 51.42 (27)

Conor Fitzgerald 52.08 (52)

Adam Colgan 53.60 (69)

100m Backstroke Cora Rooney 1:05.71 (44)

100m Breaststroke Liam O’Connor 1:04.27 (18) R

100m Breaststroke Ellie McCartney 1:12.02 (29)

Molly Mayne 1:11.10 (17) SF 1:11.37 (16)

100m Backstroke John Shortt 56.05 (9) SF 55.93 (11)

50m Butterfly Alana Burns-Atkin 28.60 (35)

50m Butterfly Conor Fitzgerald 25.51 (34)