WHEN 14-year-old Katarina Blanco was invited to Chile to take part in the country’s national open water swim championships it was a step into the unknown for more reasons than one.

The Southend teenager had never previously been to the South American country, from where her father Jaime hails, nor ever competed in a gruelling 10km open water event.

But the talented youngster took it all in her stride and remarkably returned to England as the national champion of Chile — booking her spot at next year’s World Championships in the process.

“It was amazing,” said Blanco, who is on a scholarship at Plymouth’s Leander academy, one of the best swim centres in the country. “I hoped I would win, but I had no idea who I would be up against.

“Before I went there, I had never raced anything longer than 3km. Normally I race 400m or 800m in a pool so racing in open water, in a big lake, was something different. There is lots of pushing and people swimming over the top of you so it took a while to get used to.”

Blanco, however, got used to the new style of racing fairly quickly and after nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes of swimming, the race came down to a sprint between the Southend teenager and one other rival.

“We were neck-and-neck the whole way,” said Blanco, who was the youngest competitor in the field. “It came down to just me and this other girl. I started to break away first and managed to beat her by an arm’s pull.”

The victory means Blanco will travel to the World Champion-ships in Canada next October with the Chilean squad and has made her quite the celebrity in her adopted country.

“I will be going to the World Championships and before that the Pan-American Games,” said Blanco. “I had always planned to represent either Chile or Great Britain. It was just a case of whichever came first. And that was Chile.

“It was actually the first time I had ever been to the country. It’s so expensive to get out there so I hadn’t been able to do it before. But when they heard about the opportunity, my mum and dad saved up as much as they could so me and my dad could go out there.

“I have always wanted to go there and it was great to be able to do it.

“After my win I was on the local TV and had a whole page about me in one of the newspapers. My Spanish is getting better. I can understand it a lot better than I can speak it so my dad had to do all the translating for me. I’m studying it at school so hopefully it will get better.”

Blanco’s story is amazing enough, but it could have been even more special had circumstances been a little different.

As the best open water swimmer in Chile, you would think she would have been in contention of a place competing for her adopted country in next year’s London Olympics, just 38 miles from her home town.

“Unfortunately they had already selected the swimmers for the London Olympics,” revealed Blanco. “And I don’t think they would have considered me because I’m too young, but they’ll be more opportunities.”

But Blanco’s coach John Rudd believes it’s only a matter of time before she is an Olympic athlete.

He said: “She would not look out of place in international races. She if full of character, confident and tough as old boots.

“With her now it’s all about collecting experience for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.”