A YOUNG swimmer from Helensburgh hopes to keep on making waves on the national scene after recording a new personal best and reaching number one in the Scottish rankings for 2019 recently.

Former Hermitage Academy pupil Eve Thompson, 20, produced a brilliant 32.89-second time to finish fifth in the 50m breaststroke final of the British Universities Long Course Championship in Sheffield in February.

And ahead of the British Summer Championships in Glasgow at the end of July, Eve aims to continue dominating her discipline and possibly earn a place in next year’s Great Britain Olympic Games team.

She said: “I’m absolutely delighted with my new PB. It was always the aim this year to get under that 33-second mark and I’ve been lifting heavier in the gym and working harder, so it’s paid off, although I was a bit surprised.

“The aim this season was to make the Olympic trials and I need to hit 32.7 seconds for that, so I’m only one tenth of a second away.

“It’s quite unlikely that I’ll make that at any of my upcoming competitions. It could happen, you never know, but I’m not really worrying about that just now.”

The scale of her achievement was illustrated by Olympic champion Adam Peaty’s victory in the men’s race over the same distance.

Eve is juggling her swimming training with her studies in her final year at the University of Stirling, but she is confident that she can maintain her recent success.

She added: “This is a good step in the right direction and the British Championships are obviously the big ones, so I’m hoping to make a final in that.

“I just want to keep swimming for as long as I can and keep on doing as well as I can.”