STEVENSTON student Danielle Joyce is on track for her first World Deaf Swimming Championships in Texas this August – after breaking her ninth world record last month.

Eighteen-year-old Danielle set a new world record of 31.11 seconds for the S15 (hearing impaired) category at Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool.

She now holds all world short course backstroke records and two long course records.  Danielle, who won two golds at last year’s European Championships, is excited about her first World Championships.

She said: “My coaches told me not to expect any big improvements at this time of the year because I’m adapting to a new programme and new training.

“But I feel I have made some big improvements and I’m on track for the Worlds.

“I’m slightly nervous but because the Europeans went so well last year I know I’ll handle the pressure.

"It’s more the racing in the heat that I’m worried about and obviously being backstroke the sun will be shining right in my face, but I think I‘ll be ok.” Danielle, who is studying sport and exercise at the University of Stirling, was born with a moderate hearing loss which deteriorated badly from age 12.

She is now severely deaf in one ear and profoundly deaf in the other.

It poses several challenges, not least how Danielle communicates with her coaches Ben Higson and Steve Tigg.

But they are overcoming it by a combination of lip reading and sign language.

There is also the less obvious drawback of not being able to benefit from the sound of a roaring crowd.

But she is thriving, not only in deaf events, but in mainstream competitions.

Racing for the University of Stirling in the recent British Universities Championships she finished sixth in the 50m freestyle.

A multi-talented sprinter in butterfly, freestyle and backstroke, 6’4” Danielle is still growing and likely to be well into her twenties before she reaches her peak and in a position to achieve her greatest ambitions.  She said: “I want to improve my mainstream more than my deaf swimming because I think I have a lot of potential there and I’m working my way up the rankings.

“I’m in the top 15 for categories in Scotland and my coaches are trying to get me into the top 25 in Britain.

“One of my long term goals is to compete in the Commonwealth Games.

To achieve that would be amazing and if I did that I would look towards the Olympic Games.

Stirling first year student Danielle, is one of 150 to be supported by Winning Students, Scotland’s national sports scholarships programme for student athletes.

Through the programme she receives funding support and the academic flexibility required to perform at the highest level in sport and studies.

She said: “The university are very understanding.

"Last year I missed a lot of compulsory days so I could compete for the university.

"But the lecturers put a lot of the slides up so I could catch up and I passed my first year exams with their help.

“Winning Students helps a lot because deaf sport doesn’t get any funding.

"Their support helps me fund trips and helps me focus on training more and takes my mind off worrying about how to find money to pay for it.”