Ellesmere swim ace makes double splash

Southward, who represents Ellesmere College Titans, helped Great Britain's girls take silver in the 4x100 medley relay at the European Youth Olympics Festival in Georgia.

The talented 14-year-old also enjoyed individual success, claiming bronze in the 100m backstroke. Such results have whetted Southward's appetite for more international appearances.

And she said: "It has been a great experience and has just motivated me further to keep working hard to try to earn Team GB selection again in the future."

Titans' head coach Alan Bircher added: "The character shown by Ellie to step up and produce some exceptional times and win an individual medal and relay medal is a huge achievement."

Her latest success caps a busy rollercoaster season for Southward, who joined the Titans aged 10.

An elbow injury suffered in February almost cut her season short, but she also won her age group for the fourth consecutive year at the Midlands Regional Championships.

That's as well as claiming international medals for a West Midlands select team at the Luxembourg Euro-meet and then for England at the Energy Standard Cup in Italy.

She qualified for the youth Olympics festival in April when she won the 100m backstroke and came third in the 200m backstroke as well as making a further three finals at the British Swimming Championships in London.

Having then come through her 100m backstroke heat and semi-final in Georgia, Southward finished just behind Janja Jamsek of Slovenia, who took silver, and top seed Valeriya Egorova of Russian, who claimed gold.

Southward's bronze medal came about in somewhat bizarre circumstances after a timing error initially had her finishing fourth.

However, the time correction came through at the last second, allowing Southward to make her victory ceremony.

Southward said: "All afternoon there were power issues affecting the timing, it's just unfortunate that it happened in my race.

"It feels like everything has finally paid off. Getting onto the team was amazing but this was one step better. The top four were really close so I gave it my all and hoped for the best."

She then produced the sixth fastest time in the 200m backstroke heats, but EYOF rules state that only one athlete per nation can progress to a final.

Team member Sophie Hobbah qualified ahead of her as as a result before securing the bronze medal.

In the relay, Southward joined Katie Robertson, Caitlin Hubbard and Rebecca Sutton and qualified first for the final before Slovenia just pipped them to gold.

Great Britain swam a time of 4:16.14 and Southward said:"I was really hoping for our team to do well in this and it's great that we have delivered."

She added: "I'm really pleased with my overall performance. My 100m backstroke gave me a buzz for the whole week.

"This has been different from any competition we've been involved in before but I think we've dealt with it really well and the medals prove that. I really enjoyed it."

Southward's season has now come to a close, but she will return to training in just three weeks' time as she bids to build on a fine campaign.