GAYLE Adamson was the pride of the North-East last night after securing the region's first Commonwealth Games medal.

Adamson, from Whickham, won silver in the synchronised swimming solo event at Manchester's Aquatics Centre.

And she could double her medal tally today when she competes alongside Katie Hooper in the duets.

Adamson, who swims for Gateshead Synchro, went into the solo discipline determined to improve on the bronze she collected at the Kuala Lumpur Games four years ago.

As expected, the 22-year-old British champion finished well behind winner Claire Carver-Dias, from Canada - but she beat Australia's Naomi Young into third place by the comfortable margin of 2.083 points.

Having established a slight lead over Young after the technical routine yesterday morning, Adamson scored heavily for both artistic impression and technical merit in her free performance in the afternoon.

Adamson, who aims to become a PE teacher after gaining a first-class degree in sports studies at Northumbria University last month, said: "This is the highlight of my career. It means so much to win a silver medal in front of my home crowd.

"I was half confident and half feeling the pressure going into the afternoon. The morning performance gave me a big boost.

"Naomi Young is a fantastic swimmer and she looked really strong, so it means a lot to beat the person who beat me in Kuala Lumpur.

"I can't really celebrate tonight. I'm going to go back to the hotel and think about what I'm going to do in the duets.

"But getting one over the Australians will give us a big psychological boost ahead of the duets."

Adamson again rounded on synchro's many critics, challenging those who claim it is not a genuine sport to try it for themselves.

"People don't realise how hard synchronised swimming is. They think it's effortless but it's our job to make it look effortless," she added.

"People who have a go at us should go to their local swimming pool and do it just to see how difficult it is to float upside down and perform moves. It's very draining."

Carver-Dias eased to victory after having lunch with the Queen in-between her two performances.

She said: "I was more nervous about meeting her than I was about the competition. She's a wonderful person and she wished me good luck for the afternoon.