BARBARA Morton has won two medals at the World Masters Swimming Championships in New Zealand.

The Darwen Masters Swimming Club member won medals in the 100m backstroke and the 50m breaststroke in the 65-69 age group in the finals held in Christchurch to record her best ever performance in the world championships.

World class masters swimmers from all over the globe took part in the International Long Course Championships where medals were awarded to the top ten swimmers in each of the events.

And Morton defied the odds and the seedings to achieve personal best times in the pool to finish ninth in the backstroke and eighth in the breaststroke finals.

In the 50m breaststroke, where Morton has struggled recently, the Darwen swimmer surpassed her seeding of 12th place to record a time of 53.12 seconds to finish in eighth place. And in the 100m backstroke, Morton again surpassed expectations to swim a time of 1:53.42 -- some two and half seconds faster than her time at the last World Masters -- to finish in ninth place. She narrowly missed out on another medal after finishing in 11th place in her first event of the competition, the 200m backstroke with a time of 4.07.93.

Morton, who trains with club members at Darwen Leisure Centre, took part in a total of five events.

And while there were no more medals, the highly talented swimmer improved on previous best times in World Masters finals. She swam the 50m backstroke in a time of 50.64 seconds and the 100m breaststroke in 2:07.25 to finish just outside the medals in 14th place in both events.