Adlington sets world leading mark to retain 800m title in Sheffield

From Chris Cottrell, Sportsbeat, in Sheffield

REBECCA Adlington clocked the fastest time in the world this year to retain her 800m freestyle title at the British Gas Swimming Championships in Sheffield.

WORLD LEADER: Rebecca Adlington sets the fastest 800m freestyle time in the world this year to win her second title of the Championships (Getty Images / British Gas Swimming Championships)

After a below-par season last year, the double Olympic champion bounced back to form to clinch the 200m freestyle title on Monday and added the 800m in emphatic style on Thursday.

Adlington finished nearly a full 50m length ahead of the field as she touched home in 8:21.95 minutes - 0.88 seconds faster than Katie Goldman's previous world leading time from the Australian National Championships.

And the 800m world record holder admitted she had surprised herself with the time, having swum the second half of the race out on her own.

"I find it really hard swimming out on my own," said Adlington, who set her world record of 8:14.10 minutes in the Olympic final in Beijing two years ago.

"I struggle when there's no contest because when you get to the middle of the race, you need someone to spur you on and I didn't feel like I was pushing too much for the win.

"But I'm pleased with the time - it's nice to beat Goldman's time and after finishing fourth at the Worlds last year, I really want to be back up there."

Adlington's Nova Centurion teammate Sasha Matthews set an 11-second personal best of 8:34.50 minutes to strike silver while Welsh record holder Jaz Carlin touched home another 1.02 secs back in bronze.

Meanwhile, Fran Halsall continued her impressive form to add the 100m butterfly title to her 100m freestyle crown.

The 19-year old was only the third fastest on paper and qualified seventh fastest but set a personal best 57.83 seconds to capture her second gold of the Championship.

Defending champion and British record holder Ellen Gandy touched home second in a season's best 58.64 secs while Welsh record holder Jemma Lowe also set a season's best 58.73 in third.

Halsall will be looking to pick up her third title of the week on Friday night after qualifying fastest for the 50m freestyle final.

The world 100m silver medallist finished her semi final in 25.13 secs with 50m fly champion Amy Smith the second fastest qualifier in 25.46.

Finally, 16-year old Achieng Ajulu-Bushell took a step closer to booking her place at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games after storming through the 100m backstroke semi finals.

The Plymouth-based swimmer, who switched allegiance to England and Great Britain after competing for Kenya at last summer's World Championships, clocked a season's best 1:08.84 minutes with defending champion Kate Haywood second fastest for tomorrow‘s final.

IN PICTURES: DAY FOUR FROM THE BRITISH GAS SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN SHEFFIELD

The nation's leading energy supplier British Gas is the Principal Partner of British Swimming, and have pledged £15m to support the sport at all levels - from paddling pool to podium. For more information visit www.britishgas.co.uk/swimming