FORMER Colchester Swimming Club member Laura Stephens has won a brilliant gold at the World Championships, in Doha.

The 24-year-old international swimmer claimed a superb victory after winning in a time of two minutes 07.35 seconds in the Women's 200m Butterfly final at the event, in Qatar.

Stephens, who is a former pupil at Colchester County High School for Girls, has become Great Britain's first individual female world champion since 2011.

The Wix swimmer moved things on well from morning to evening, pacing her races consistently to go through third into the final.

Speaking prior to her final, Stephens reflected on the confidence those swims gave her during an important training phase.

She told British Swimming: "To be able to put those two swims together in these circumstances, at a World Championships in February, is something we've never done before.

"It does feel weird being here, everyone is all in different places - some people can qualify for the Olympics here, we are just training through.

"So to be able to put such strong swims together, I'm over the moon with that and I think I'm in a good place.

Gazette:

"I wanted to be here to just get more major meet swims in, get this kind of atmosphere under my belt, and more experience competing at this level, learning as I go through every single round.

"There aren't many meets where you have to do three swims, so I'll go through the processes tonight and then I'm looking forward to tomorrow night to see what I can do."

Stephens grew up competing for Colchester Swimming Club, before moving onto Plymouth Leander.

She made the switch to the British Swimming Performance Centre, Loughborough after Tokyo 2020, where she swam the 200m butterfly and finished just outside the final spots in a very respectable tenth place in what was her debut at such an event.