A five-year-old girl has proved she is not out of her depth after blowing fellow swimmers out of the water at a Wimbledon swimming club.

Water baby Marina Coombes is the youngest swimmer by three years in the “big people” pool at Merton Swordfish Swimming Club in Wimbledon leisure centre.

The Aragon Primary School pupil can swim 50m freestyle and breaststroke using proper breathing techniques – earning her swimmer of the week last week.

Mother Maria, who is a swimming teacher at the club, said: “She started swimming as soon as she was born. She loves the water.

“At a young age, it was all about making her confident in the water and having fun.

“Another teacher suggested putting her in the big pool and she’s been loving it ever since.”

The 30-year-old, of Roche Walk in Sutton, added Marina has learned to use the bilateral breathing techniques that professional swimmers use to optimise speed.

She said: “She says she wants to be a mermaid when she grows up.”

Merton Swordfish swimming instructor Deborah Pitts, 53, of Wandle Road, Morden, said: “She’s remarkable really.

"But she frightens all the lifeguards because she’s so tiny. And they ask, can she swim? “And I say just watch her.”

The wannabe Ariel is a huge fan of Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Olympic diver Tom Daley.

Mrs Coombes added: “She loves Tom Daley. We had to sit and watch him dive all day during the Olympics.”

Mrs Coombes added that her three-year-old son Ethan can swim 5m and even her six-month-old daughter loves the water.

She said: “We are a family of swimmers, we love the water.”

The mother-of-four explained: “Swimming is a life skill and if she fell in a river I know that she would be able to swim to the side.”