An award-winning paralympic swimmer from Middlewich and a former member of Alsager Swimming Club, has won a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Poppy Maskill, who hails from Middlewich and started out life at Alsager Swimming Club based at Alsager Leisure Centre, won silver.

The swimming star was second in an England 1-2 in the women's S14 200m freestyle final and was pipped to gold by her best friend and Manchester Performance Centre training partner. Georgia Sheffield.

It's an improvement on the last Commonwealth Games four years ago where she came fourth in the final of the S14 200m Freestyle at the games in Birmingham.

Two years ago in 2024, she won three golds and two silver medals at the Paris games.

Phil Balcombe, who coached Poppy during her Alsager Swimming Club days, said previously: "Poppy is an extremely hard worker. She probably missed fewer than five sessions in the 10 years that I was her coach.

"I thought Poppy had the right ingredients to be a good swimmer from day one, but only after she was classified in 2018 did I start to think she would go all the way to the top."

Phil coached Poppy from mid-2015 when she was just 10 years old until March 2023 when she was 18 and already a world champion as we revealed here .

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