A HELENSBURGH woman has kept her cool in freezing conditions to win gold in the World International Ice Swimming Championships.

Jade Perry, who is originally from Hockney in Essex, claimed top spot in her age group for the 1km ice swim with a time of 15 minutes and two seconds, and finished first in the 50m front crawl following a 31-second time.

The bi-annual races, held this year in Murmansk, Russia, take place in a 25m pool carved out of the ice with a chainsaw, with water temperatures of zero degrees Celsius and outside air temperatures of between minus four to minus eight degrees Celsius.

READ MORE: Helensburgh's record-breaking ice swimmer heads for world championships.

Jade, 36, said: “Before heading to Russia, I’d never swum in such cold water.

“They were fishing ice out of the water between swims.

“I was nervous before heading out, but the support that I’ve had from friends and family has kept me motivated.”

Helensburgh-based Jade is the British record holder for the fastest one-kilometre ice swim, after recording a time of 14 minutes and 55.1 seconds in February 2018.

She was the oldest swimmer in the top 10 in Russia by at least a decade and finished ninth overall after being ranked 12th among the women before the contest.

More than 400 swimmers from 32 countries took part in the competition.