KELLY College swimmer Louise Watkin, who just turned 18 this month, has won a gold medal, three silver medals and a bronze medal at the IPC World Swimming Championships in Eindhoven.  To round off a very successful week, Louise has also gained distinctions in all the modules of her BTEC National Diploma in Sport (performance and excellence) at Kelly College.

Louise was ranked first for the final of the S9 class women's 50m freestyle, and hopes were raised for a good start in the first race that day to feature British athletes.

Having the fastest time in the heats (29.79), Louise was lined up in the final next to South African world record holder, Natalie du Toit, who had beaten her twice this week, and the British record holder was fired up for success. Louise got a good start and looked on course for victory from the 25m mark. She touched in 29.26.039 — just 0.22 seconds off the world record.

After the race, she said: 'I am just speechless. This was such an amazing feeling and I just don't want it to end. I saw her at the half way point and just wanted to make sure I beat her. Everything just went right tonight and I couldn't be happier right now.'

National performance director, John Atkinson, said: 'It was great to see Louise beat paralympic champion Natalie du Toit. It was an awesome effort from her and it showed how she held her nerve to win her first gold in the face of a tough challenge.'

Louise powered on to second place in the finals of the women's 200m inidividual medley, SM9 race, a few seconds behind world record holder, Natalie du Toit.

In eighth place after the butterfly, Louise pulled up to fifth after the backstroke, then made a tremendous push forward to second place in the breastroke lap, holding it for the final freestyle lap and gaining a personal best time of 2:37 .71, a 0.81s improvement on her qualifying time.

Louise said: 'I am slightly disappointed with my butterfly leg, but I still got a personal best in that race and I feel good with that and my medal.'

Louise scooped silver in the women's 100m breakstroke SB9 event, and was part of the GB team who won silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay race, alongside team-mates Claire Cashmore, an ex-Kelly College swimmer, world champion Eleanor Simmonds and Stephanie Millward. The team came in with a new British record time of 4:29.49.

Louise also gained a bronze medal in the women's 100m freestyle S9 race with a time of 1:04.05.