Poppy Maskill in para swimming squad for Commonwealth Games

Poppy Maskill, 17, achieved selection yesterday, Wednesday, for her Games debut after displaying some fine form this year.

The former Winsford Swim Team and Northwich Centurions competitor, who was Middlewich Rose Queen in 2014, aged nine, won her first major international swimming title at the Citi Para Swimming World Series in Aberdeen in February.

Poppy Maskill, aged nine, after confirmation she would be Middlewich Rose Queen in 2014

Alsager Swimming Club’s S14 athlete Maskill led from the front in the women’s MC 100m butterfly world series final but touched home second behind Paralympian Toni Shaw (S9).

However, Maskill’s time of 1:09.45 was enough to seal the gold with 767 points – only six ahead of silver medallist Shaw who had clocked 1:08.41.

Maskill said at the time: “Racing against athletes from around the world has been really cool this week.”

That is starting to become the norm for the 2021 Everybody Awards Disabled Sports Achiever winner.

In March she won her first gold medal abroad when taking the women’s 100m backstroke title at the Para Swimming World Series in Italy.

Maskill, who headed overseas for warm-weather training earlier this week, will also be heading to next month’s World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira.

All leads to her featuring in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham between July 28 and August 8.

Before classification Maskill raced as an able bodied athlete at county, regional and national level.

She competes in all events from 50m sprints to 5000m open water races.