YOUNG Swanage swimmer Daisy Kirkpatrick has been winning more medals and moving up the rankings for her age group.

The 11-year-old qualified to compete in 13 events at the Swim England South West regional championship after taking part in the Dorset County Championship in January and two Level 1 competitions.

The regional championship is open to swimmers from Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire with the first of two two-day events at Millfield School in Street in April and the second coming up at Bristol Hengrove pool in mid-May.

At Millfield, in the 200m Individual Medley – one length of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl – she smashed two seconds off her personal best time to secure a place in the final, where she dropped another half a second to take the silver medal.

In the 100m Butterfly, Daisy dropped time on her personal best in the heat to secure her place in the final, where she gained the bronze medal.

Daisy was competing for the first time at a regional level championship and her achievements are especially notable as the events at Millfield and Bristol are in 50m pools, a facility not available in Dorset.

Daisy said: “It’s so different competing in a 50m pool – it’s so much harder than the 25m pools I train in at Canford and Littledown five times a week. You don’t have all the walls and turns to help you, it’s a different level of endurance needed.”

Daisy, who competes in the under 12 category and is coached by Luke Dormer, will be travelling to Bristol for the second part of the championship.