Ellie McCartney won silver in the 200m breaststroke at the European Under-23 Championships in Slovakia.

McCartney found herself third halfway through the race behind Denmark’s Clara Rybek-Anderson and Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterekova.

She surged ahead of Teterkova in the second 100 metres but fell short of catching 2024 European silver medallist Rybek-Anderson, who finished 0.13 seconds ahead of McCartney in two minutes 23.89 seconds.

The 20-year-old from Enniskillen came in at two minutes 24.02 seconds for a personal best in the event.

That completes a set of medals for McCartney after she won gold in the 200m individual medley and bronze in the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week.

“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,” she said.

“It’s bittersweet being so close to getting gold again, but to get a personal best, 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.”