A 10-year-old Hackney girl won double gold in a swimming competition last month.

Ella Sharman, a member of Hackney aquatics club, was crowned Middlesex county champion for the 50m and 200m breast stroke, bettering her previous personal best for the 200m by over 20 seconds to record a time of just 3 minutes 19.04 seconds, almost six seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Ella, of London Fields, said: “I am so pleased to have won. I didn’t really think about it. I just swam as fast as I could and I couldn’t believe it when they said I’d come first.”

Including Ella, Hackney Aquatics club had seven official regional qualifiers in the Middlesex County Swimming Championship including Minna Griffiths, 12, who qualified in the 100m back and Harry Myers, 15, who qualified in the 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley.

Dick Millard, chair of Hackney Aquatics Club, said: “It is fantastic to see our young swimmers achieving such enormous success at county level – our best ever result! Congratulations to Ella, our new county champion, everybody who qualified for the regional championships and to all our other young swimmers who all performed brilliantly, many achieving personal bests and all trying their very hardest in this very tough competition.”