BOLTON’S Emma Saunders immediately set her sights on the World Youth Swimming Championships after bringing the curtain down on her domestic challenge on Saturday.

Saunders was a busy girl at last week’s British Gas Swimming Championships with her final event taking place on Sunday, with the Bolton youngster touching home seventh in the 50m freestyle final.

Commonwealth Games silver and European bronze medallist Fran Halsall claimed gold, with Saunders finishing in 26.44 seconds – a second and a half behind Halsall.

But after climbing out of the pool for the final time at the Manchester Aquatics Centre the 16-year-old, who collected relay silver and bronze at last October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, declared her week a job well done. She said: “The race went about as well as can be expected really. I really pushed until the end. I breathed about once which was the best I have done in the heats and semis so I am pretty pleased with it overall.

“The week overall has been one of the best I have done. I have swum PBs in most of my races so I am obviously really pleased by that.

“I have qualified for the World Youths as well which was another aim for the week so I am happy to have the pressure off for that. I will now train towards that and I am really looking forward to that – it should be really good.

“I will swim the 100m back, 100 free, 200m free, 200m IM so it will be a pretty busy week!

“The week has been pretty challenging. That was my 16th race so it has been long but I am really pleased with it overall.”

But despite a trip to Peru pencilled in to the diary for August, the grounded Bolton teenager revealed it would be business as usual when she returns home.

“I am back to college now so it is about balancing the training and the school work but I am looking forward to training again but also having some time to recover,” she added.

! The nation’s leading energy supplier British Gas is the principal partner of British Swimming, and is supporting the sport at all levels, from grass roots to our elite athletes.

Visit www.britishgas.co.uk/swimming.