WEST FIFE swimmers Ellie Turner and Emma Russell were in sensational form last weekend as they brought home medals from an international meet.

The talented Woodmill High School teenagers, who compete for Carnegie and Heart of Midlothian swimming clubs respectively, were in Switzerland to represent Scotland’s Youth Development Squad at the Geneva International Challenge 2018.

Running from Friday to Sunday, the competition – in its 50th year – brings together some of Europe’s best swimmers and plays a significant role in Scottish Swimming’s development of their top juniors.

S3 pupils Ellie and Emma, who both medalled at last year’s British Summer Championships, took to the pool during each of the three days and each emerged with medals and personal bests.

Ellie, who last year competed for the Scotland Youth Development Squad at the Oporto International Meet in Portugal, which resulted in a 200 metres backstroke gold medal, came close to repeating that feat on the opening day of competition.

After qualifying second for the girls’ under-17 final in a time of 2:22.02, she held off the challenge of Athena Clayson, of the Mount Kelly Swimming Club in Tavistock, Devon, to take the silver medal in 2:21.06 behind Israel’s race winner Anastasya Gorbenko (2:16.53).

She followed that up by qualifying for the 200m individual medley final by finishing third in her heat in 2:25.10 but finished just outside the medals, placing fifth in a time of 2:26.71.

Meanwhile, Emma, after qualifying for the 400m freestyle final in seventh place (4:36.33), recorded a new PB of 4:30.57 – finishing just behind fourth-placed team-mate Iona MacLeod – before just missing out on both the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley finals, finishing 11th and 10th respectively in times of 1:08.04 and 2:29.50.

On day two, Ellie just missed out on qualifying for the 50m backstroke B final by 0.19 seconds, clocking a time of 31.23, before finishing 10th overall in a tough 400m individual medley final (5:10.75).

Another PB arrived for Emma in the 100m freestyle heat, with her time of 59.38 good enough for fifth place and a berth in the final, where she came agonisingly close to a medal.

Despite posting another PB of 58.80, Emma was squeezed out of third place and into fourth by Mount Kelly’s Emily Haimes by just 0.08 seconds, with only 0.52 seconds separating her from Scotland team-mate Georgina Dennis, who picked up the silver medal.

She overcame that disappointment to claim another PB, this time in the 50m butterfly, where she finished 19th overall in 29.12, but her wait for a medal ended on the final day of competition.

After keeping her run of new best times going with another in the 800m freestyle (9:27.60) to place 11th, she equalled her 50m freestyle PB of 27.96 before producing a stunning performance in the 200m freestyle.

Emma, after qualifying second in 2:08.55, improved further on that time to secure a brilliant bronze in 2:05.71 – another new PB – which was only 0.26 seconds behind Italian silver-medallist Emanuela Tortomasi and 0.63 seconds adrift of winner Georgina Dennis.

Ellie, meanwhile, also kept her best swim of the weekend until last in the 100m backstroke.

After finishing second in her heat in 1:06.04, she took a second off her heat time to record a new PB of 1:05.03 on her way to third place and a second medal of a highly successful competition for the Woodmill pair.