Shropshire swimmer Freya Anderson makes the best of pooled resources

The Ellesmere College pupil has had a year to remember, claiming three titles at the British Summer Championships and being named Emerging Swimmer of the Year.

The award meant a glitzy British Swimming ceremony and interview at London's Connaught Rooms – but 15-year-old Anderson is doing most of her talking in the pool.

She won the European Junior Championships' blue riband event, the 100m freestyle, in Hungary and has also blitzed the British junior record for the distance.

Jessica Lloyd's mark of 55.29 seconds had resisted all assaults for six years, but Anderson took it apart by clocking 54.26 at Stockport.

Her performances have gained her international recognition – she's backed by Australian swimwear firm Funkita – and a place in next August's World Junior Championships in Indianapolis.

And beyond that would be a dream berth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – Anderson is already part of Britain's Podium Potential Program.

It's all a far cry from her first cautious strokes in the pool as a young child.

"My parents got me into it as a life skill," she said. "They started me learning. I've always liked the water."

So much so that she is now at Ellesmere under the tuition of Alan Bircher, swimming's British Youth Coach of the Year who also won Coach of the Year at the recent Shropshire Energize Awards.

"This year Freya has produced a number of outstanding performances and impressive times," he said. This award (Emerging Swimmer) is well-deserved."

Yet it was a surprise to the swimmer herself. "It was surreal to win, I didn't think I would be the one to receive the award, with fellow Funkita and Funky Trunks athletes Emily Large and Tom Derbyshire also in the running," she said.

"But I guess all the hard work paid off and the benefits are beginning to show."

That hard work includes swimmers' customary early starts for training, although having Ellesmere's facilities on tap does limit the impact.

"It's easier at Ellesmere, you don't have to get up until quarter to six which is a lie-in for us!" laughed Anderson. "It can be really hard, but you've got to train, you are not going to improve otherwise."

It also means that she is already mixing with high-quality swimmers at the college. Are they friends or rivals?

"It's definitely a bit of both," said Anderson. "You have really close friends, but also you're training with them and racing them.

"You get a buzz from beating them – or they beat you!

"It's good at Ellesmere. You have set periods where you can do school work after training.

"My coach tries to make me concentrate on myself. I always like to check up on what times other people are doing!

"I'm hoping to make a living out of swimming and then perhaps try something else.

"It would be amazing to go to the Olympics. It's always been my dream. Hopefully all the hard work will pay off."

Before then comes the world juniors and the toughest competition she will have faced so far. "I'd be made up to get into the final," she added.

"But then you always want to go that little bit further..."