Maisie Summers-Newton: 'Hard work worth it' says Para Swimming champion

At the Para Swimming World Championships, Maisie Summers-Newton won two golds and a silver

Maisie Summers-Newton said "all the hard work was worth it" after she won two golds at the Para Swimming World Championships.

The 21-year-old, from Northampton, improved her own European record, claiming SB6 100m breaststroke honours.

She also won a gold in the 200m medley and gained a 400m freestyle silver at the championships earlier this month.

"Being in Manchester was incredible because it meant my family could come and watch," she said.

Maisie Summers-Newton won the SB6 100m breaststroke and the 200m medley in Manchester

She has been a mainstay of the British team since making her debut at the 2018 Europeans in Dublin and is a European, World, Paralympic and Commonwealth champion.

Breaststroke is her main event and she finished in a time of one minute 31.34 seconds to beat her previous best of 01:32.16 set last year, and move closer to the world record of 01:29.87.

Summers-Newton said: "I train eight times a week, two to two-and-a-half hours each session is, getting up at four in the morning and putting all of this effort in.

"When I [swim a personal best] at these major events... that's where it really shows that it's paid off and all the hard work was worth it."

The medals from the World Championships have added to Summers-Newton's impressive haul from previous major events

She has combined swimming with teacher training at the University of Northampton and said from March to June she was on a school placement.

Summers-Newton said: "Doing full school hours and also my training hours was quite difficult.

"There were days where I was absolutely exhausted, but I love both and I think it's really important for me to kind of have my time out of the pool and try not to think about swimming too much, because I think if I was to think about it all the time my head would just kind of explode."

Maisie Summers-Newton is aiming to compete at the Paris Paralympics next year

As well as her university course and placement, she has visited other schools where she was "able to talk to the children all about my sport and swimming and disabilities".

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"I think that's just creating awareness of it and making it more of a positive thing for children to know about," she said.

The 21-year-old said she would now take a "well deserved break" before she began to focus on the Paralympic Games in Paris next year.