Enniskillen swimmer, Ellie McCartney, is determined to embrace her first-ever appearance at the World Aquatic Championships in Budapest next month.

McCartney, who swims out of the National Centre, Limerick as she is currently studying in the city was named as part of a 13-strong team Irish team led by 2024 Olympic finalist Ellen Walshe.

2024 European Championship finalist McCartney will be hoping to make a mark on the world stage in the Hungarian capital when she competes in the 200m Breaststroke as a new Olympic cycle starts to turn with Los Angeles 2028 further down the line.

She recently hit a new two-second personal best in the 200m Breaststroke at a recent meet.

"It’s a big opportunity for me straight out of a new Olympic cycle now," said McCartney.

"It will be my first chance to compete on the world stage. I have only ever done Europeans before and to be at the world stage at senior level now is exciting."

Despite knowing she had the time to qualify for the championships, McCartney's place was not guaranteed. She had to see what Olympic bronze medallist, Mona McSharry's plans were.

"During the summer I saw the time standard needed to qualify for this and I knew I had achieved it.

"But Mona who is an Olympic bronze medallist now, she was a place in front of me and they could only bring one swimmer per event so I was waiting around and having to see what her plans were.

"She's decided to take a break following the Olympics so that gave me the opportunity to compete at this."

McCartney has admitted that is hard to know what to expect from the championships but she is determined to "embrace" the chance to race against the best in the world.

"Because it is my first world championships I don’t really know what to expect.

"So, a lot of it will be going there, gaining experience, learning from some of the older guys coming from Paris, seeing how they do things and just embracing the chance to race against the world and hopefully get near my personal best. That will be a goal."

For the Enniskillen swimmer, the World Aquatic Championships will also allow her to continue building up her fitness in the early part of the Olympic cycle. 

"Following the summer we took a bigger break since it was the end of that four-year cycle.

"I was back in the water in September, just slowly building the fitness back up and we have had one or two competitions just locally and they have been going well. I have got a couple of PBs.

"Things are definitely heading in the right direction and I am excited to see how the Worlds go now."

McCartney added: "It's hard to know as well. Some athletes continue after the Olympics, some take a break so we don’t really know who all is going to be there and for what event. It's hard to know what ranking you are.

"At the moment I can just really focus on improving my own performance."

It is set to be a hectic few weeks for McCartney who is also competing in the Scottish Short Course Nationals at the start of December in Edinburgh. She will use this as preparation for the World Championships.

From there it's on to Budapest. Add in university commitment and McCartney has her hands full.

"It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks. Not to mention college exams so I will be bringing the books with me," McCartney concluded.