YORK swimmer Chloe Buck is set to take her recent medal winning form onto the national stage at this week’s British Gas Championships.

The 14-year-old is due to compete in six events at the Ponds Forge national event in Sheffield after impressing at the recent Scottish Gas Long Course National Swimming Championships earlier this month.

Buck won the gold medal in the 200 metre individual medley at the Scottish competition, held in Glasgow, and also took two silver medals from the event in the 400m freestyle and the 100m breaststroke.

York High School student Buck is one of the leading disability swimmers in the UK, ranked 15th in the world by the International Paralympic Committee in the 200m IM, the event in which she broke her personal best in Glasgow, recording a time of three minutes, 4.13 second.

Equally impressive, Buck is also ranked 16th in the 100m breaststroke and 14th in the 100m butterfly.

Modest about her successes at such a young age, Buck just enjoys the love of the sport rather than the pressure of racing against older competitors, under the gaze of filled sporting arenas such as Ponds Forge.

Buck said: “I really enjoy swimming. I don’t really get nervous so swimming in these national events doesn’t worry me too much. I just enjoy the atmosphere.”

Buck is a member of Team Jorvik Swimming Club, and was the first disability swimmer to join the team.

She trains for 16 hours a week, covering more than 30,000 metres in the pool each week.

She is also a member of the British Swimming World Class Talent programme which involves full day training sessions, where typically, she will swim 6,000m a day, and receive support from sport psychologists and nutritionists.

Buck was also nominated for a Federation of Disability Sports Organisation award for Young Achiever of the Year 2010/2011. Her nomination came from Paul Ramskill, Community Leisure Officer who believes Chloe has a great future ahead of her.

Ramskill said: “Team Jorvik has very much supported Chloe over the last year with her training and is a very inclusive and supportive club. I wish them every success in getting Chloe’s times down over the next year.

“I am hopeful Chloe will achieve the times needed to move onto the World Class Development Programme and post-2012 come into her own and may even be a contender for the Paralympics in Brazil 2016.”

Buck will compete in the UK School Games in September following her appearance at the English Championships.