Luxembourg meet for Nicky

The Dromore 17-year-old Banbridge Academy student travelled to Luxembourg along with 12 other members of Swim Ulster on 17 January to compete at the prestigious annual Euro Meet.

In the 200m backstroke, Nicky was disappointed to finish fourth in the final in a time of 2.16.66. Although this was only just over one second over his personal best (PB) time, Nicky felt he had much more to give at this point of the season.

Next came the heats of the 100m backstroke, when he recorded a time of 1.10.89 which was exactly on his previous best time.

In the final of the 100m backstroke Nicky secured his first ever European medal finishing third and recording a new personal best time of 1.01.47.

Clearly on a high from lifting a bronze medal in the 100m, Nicky swam a new pb time of 28.40 in the 50m backstroke heat, gaining him a place in the final.

Going into the final Nicky was feeling relaxed and in great form. All the hard work Nicky has put into his training so far this season has obviously paid off, as he lifted the gold medal and another new pb time of 28.11.

While he was really pleased to have secured his first ever European Gold medal, he was disappointed that he missed out on setting a new Ulster record by a mere 0.2 of a second.