A MULTI-talented nine-year-old has been crowned a triple world champion.

Anya Butterworth, of Brentwood Grove, Leigh, won a whopping 15 medals at the seventh World Dwarf Games at the University of Guelph in Canada.

The Garrett Hall Primary School pupil captained the Great Britain junior football team to glory and also won gold medals in the badminton doubles and table tennis.

Anya enjoyed silver medal success in the badminton singles, 40 metres sprint and 25 metres backstroke swimming events.

Her nine bronze medals came in basketball, volleyball, swimming and track and field events.

Anya's heroics helped team GB finish second in the medal table behind America with a total of 80 golds, 56 silvers and 65 bronzes.

Her dad Roger said: “Anya is delighted with the number of medals she won at the games and ecstatic to have captained the football team to gold.

“She did not expect to win so many but she puts 110 per cent into everything – her exceptional hard work has paid off.

“I have always encouraged Anya to get involved in sport from an early age, but for her to compete against children of a similar size was great and she has now got friends all around the world.

“I know some of the other competitors have suffered from confidence before and that the games have really helped them with that.”

More than 400 competitors from 22 countries took part at the games, which is the world's largest sporting event exclusively for athletes with dwarfism.

Like the Olympic Games, it takes place every four years.

Roger added: “The UK’s governing body DSAuk does a tremendous job with very little funding to get as many children involved in different competitions.

"But the profile of the sporting charity needs to be raised to attract more funding and help parents with costs such as travel expenses.”

For more information about the charity visit dsauk.org.