A TWYFORD student has developed a taste for success after winning five sporting medals last month.
Elowyn Meeres, 13, won four silver and one bronze medal at the Berks and South Bucks County Speed Swimming Championships in January.
The Piggott School pupil is part of Wycombe District Swimming Club and trains five times a week.
Elowyn said that the medals are “quite an achievement” for her, as she recorded personal bests (PB) in most of her races throughout the championships.
“Every race where I PB-ed, I got a medal,” she said. “And I was the youngest person with a disability there.”
Swimming classifications are used to record various impairments in order to maintain a fair competition for athletes.
Elowyn is in S6, which is for swimmers with short stature or amputations of both arms, or moderate co-ordination problems on one side of their body.
All of the other athletes with disabilities at the championships were in S9, which marks a smaller impairment, such as joint restrictions in one leg or with double below-the-knee amputations.
In the championships, swimmers’ times are recorded against their classification’s world record, meaning that the first person to finish the race isn’t necessarily the winner.
“You find out how well you have done after leaving the water,” explained Elowyn’s Mum, Anna. “There’s lots of cheering and whistling on the sidelines.
“It’s nice supporting all of the girls. Every time I see Elowyn swim, it’s amazing. In the pool she’s just a swimmer, she’s just Elowyn.”
As the scores came in, Elowyn said that she wasn’t expecting to come home with a medal, let alone five.
However she does have a history of success.
In March 2020, she won gold in the 50 metre butterfly, at the Junior Nationals.
She hopes that when they come around in June this year, there may be more medals on the cards.
“I want to enter many events,” she said, “so who knows.”
She also holds the 12th position in the world for 100 metre breaststroke, in the S6 category.
This includes all ages and all points in history.
To maintain her high standard, Elowyn is in the pool throughout the week, and even wakes at 4.30am to train on Saturdays.
In the run-up to national competitions, she is in the water eight a week.
“It can be very hard to balance with school,” she said. “But I always have Thursdays off.”
This, she said, becomes a day to focus more on her studies.
