Miley and Carlin ready to Duel

JAZ CARLIN admits she will be up against it at the British Gas Duel in the Pool this weekend – but has vowed to use her Manchester experience as a dress rehearsal for bigger challenges in 2010.

The 19-year-old former Swindon Tigershark was initially overlooked when the British Gas Swimming Team contingent was named in the European squad set to face America.

However, after Olympic and world medallist Jo Jackson was forced to withdraw from the now biannual event in Manchester – dubbed the Ryder Cup of swimming – through illness, Carlin’s services were immediately called upon.

Carlin shot to prominence at the Rome World Championships this summer taking 4x200m freestyle relay bronze alongside Jackson, double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and Caitlin McClatchey.

And despite the Duel in the Pool being swum over 25m instead of Carlin’s preferred 50m distance, she insists she will be looking at the bigger picture in Manchester and next year’s European Championships and Commonwealth Games.

“Hopefully the Duel in the Pool will prepare me for the competitions I’ve got next year and give me some more experience of competing on the big stage,” said Carlin.

“The fact that it’s a short course event isn’t going to help me though, as I must admit, my turns aren’t the best, so I’m going to have to swim faster to try and compensate.

“Turns are something that you try to work on all the time and hopefully this will help get me that little bit better, but I’m not focusing on them.

“At the moment I’m going through quite a hard patch in training in preparation for next year. I’m really excited about it as I’ll hopefully be competing at the European Championships and then the Commonwealth Games.

“If I keep improving and working as much as I am now, there’s definitely a chance I could get something. You’ve got to aim high otherwise there is no point competing.”

Carlin will join 13 other Brits, 14 Italians and eight Germans set to face a 35-strong American team at the Manchester Aquatics Centre, which also includes legendary swim star Michael Phelps.

Olympic and world champions Federica Pellegrini and Ryan Lochte have also joined Jackson in dropping out but Carlin insists the trio’s absence won’t take anything away from the occasion in the North West.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience and nothing like this has been held in England before which will make it even more special,” she added.

“I’m really excited because I’m going to be competing against some of the best swimmers in the world and the likes of Michael Phelps.

“I’ve had a great year, what with the result in the World Championships. I was really happy to come away with a medal and it was a good experience competing in a relay.

“All of my coaches are really happy with the way things are going and hopefully the competition will kick start a good year.”

Meanwhile, fresh from her European Short Course heroics in Istanbul last weekend, Swindon-born Hannah Miley will also take to the pool in Manchester.

“I have certainly grown in myself not just as an athlete by my awareness and my actual racing,” said Miley. “I am enjoying my swimming more than I ever have done and if I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t be doing it.”

British Gas and British Swimming. The nation’s leading energy supplier, British Gas, is the principal partner of British Swimming, supporting the sport at all levels: ‘From paddling pool to podium’.