AT THE age of 92, Dorothy Williams is showing no signs of slowing down. If anything, she is speeding up.

Far from taking it easy in her advancing years, the Springbourne resident has not left behind a competitive streak she fostered throughout her swimming life.

And the decision to return to the pool after an eight-year absence paid off in spades at this year's European Masters Championships.

The nonagenarian was the oldest Brit to win gold at the prestigious event at London Aquatics Centre, which hosted the swimming events at the 2012 Olympics.

Williams, who is registered disabled, trained once a week for 10 weeks in the build-up and divided her time between Stokewood Leisure Centre and Littledown Centre.

That hard work paid dividends as she topped the podium in the 50m backstroke in 1:11.05, the Bournemouth swimmer profiting after her scheduled opponent in the 90-94 years age group, the Czech Republic's Ludmila Bartakova, failed to take part.

Normally a breaststroke specialist, Williams did not have time to collect her gold medal due to time constraints but it was sent to her in the post by one of her fellow competitors, Jane Asher.

Reflecting on her triumph, Williams told the Daily Echo: "I got back in the water 12 weeks ago and I enjoyed it so much I thought I would enter the European Championships.

"My training was only 10 consecutive Fridays but it paid off. As soon as I got in the water in London I felt magic.

"My legs are a bit useless these days so I was dependent on my arm pull doing Old English Backstroke.

"When I finished everybody roared and clapped and it was fantastic. I think if I had had some opposition I might have knocked off another six seconds and achieved the world record.

"It was like I had the pool to myself because the other lady racing at the same time in a different race was about half my size. By the time I got to the end, I think she was just over halfway down.

"I felt really good when I finished and when I looked up at the scoreboard I thought 'wow, that's quite something'.

"It was an extraordinary event the more I reflect on it. I wonder how I coped!

"There were about 200 swimmers in the changing room alone but Jane and one of the other swimmers helped me a lot on the day."

Williams won her first swimming trophy when she was 11 years old after her father promised her half a crown if she came home with a medal.

A prolific Masters competitor until eight years ago, Williams has competed all over the world in venues as diverse as Rio, Montreal and Paris and has around 700 medals to her name.

Now she is enjoying the task of showing her latest gold to her friends in Springbourne, where she has lived for 25 years.

Williams said: "I couldn't collect my medal at the time as my son provided my transport and he needed to get to Southampton to catch a ferry for his holiday!

"But one of my fellow competitors said she would collect it for me and she sent it to me in the post.

"I had been dying to show it to all the people I know in Springbourne at Tesco, Aldi, Co-op and Ladbrokes.

"Since it was sent to me I've been carrying it round in my pocket and it has been quite lovely to show it to everybody."

Meanwhile, Swim Bournemouth’s Nigel Foster returned home with a British record as well as a bronze medal from the European Masters Championships.

The 66-year-old won bronze in the 65-69yrs 200m backstroke before shaving 0.13secs off the national record as he came fifth in the 100m backstroke in 1:21.73.

The 100m freestyle produced bronze medals for Poole swimmers Peter Kirk in the 60-64yrs age group and Jean Howard-Jones in the 70-74yrs.