COMMENT: Girl power rules for British Swimming's Spice Girls

THE Worm That Turned was a misogynistic mini-drama within The Two Ronnies about a world where women had taken over.

RECORD BREAKERS: Hannah Miley, Ellen Gandy, Jo Jackson and Rebecca Adlington were in red-hot form at last week's British Gas national championships (SWpix.com/Getty Images)

Men were made to wear dresses and banned from drinking and smoking, whilst the opposite sex walked around in leather shorts, thigh length boots and peaked caps. The Union Jack was trimmed with a pair of frilly knickers.

And it's a bit like British swimming.

The public address announcer at last week's British Gas national championships didn't have much taste in music.

In a bid to warm-up the thinly populated crowd at Sheffield's Ponds Forge he/she played a video of Boyzone in concert to get them in the mood for the action to follow.

But perhaps the Spice Girls would have been a better choice because in the pool it's girl power that rules.

British Swimming officials have long talked about the talent coming through the women's ranks.

In a café overlooking the Rod Laver Arena, on the final day of the last World Championships in Melbourne, former performance director Bill Sweetenham sipped a latte and talked excitedly about the teens in his programme.

Now, they are starting to graduate with some spectacular results.

Rebecca Adlington, 20, swam the fifth fastest 800m freestyle of all-time in Sheffield. The double Olympic champion also produced the second quickest 400m freestyle of all time.

Jo Jackson, 22, lowered Federica Pellegrini's old record to set up an intriguing battle against a home favourite at this summer's World Championships in Rome.

Hannah Miley, 19, set a new 200 medley European record and lowered her own 400m medley best.

And Ellen Gandy, just 17, swam a 200m butterfly European record.

18-year old Jemma Lowe, who was sixth in last year's 100m butterfly Olympic final, was absent from Sheffield as she is studying in the USA, as is 21-year old Gemma Spofforth, who finished fourth by a fraction in the 100m backstroke in Beijing.

Add to that cast Lizzie Simmonds, Fran Halsall and Caitlin McClatchey plus Olympic open water medallists Keri-anne Payne and Cassie Patten and there is not only strength but also depth across a number of strokes and distances.

Performance director Michael Scott believes he is presiding over a golden generation, timely with the 2012 Olympics in London edging closer on the horizon.

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But with some notable exceptions - David Davies, Liam Tancock and Chris Walker-Hebborn, the 18-year old who won the 200m backstroke last week - the same cannot be said of the men's team.

Scott rightly points out that in swimming the men mature later but is there a different mentality at work?

David Carry is 27 and won two golds at the 2006 Commonwealth Games plus holds national record for both the 200m freestyle, while Davies trimmed two seconds off his former 400m freestyle record last week.

He endured a disappointing week in Sheffield, which he put down to the post-Beijing blues.

He told Sportsbeat's Ryan Bangs: "It's really hard at the moment. I'm at the beginning of a four-year training programme geared around the Olympics, so I'm fighting a constant mental battle whenever I get in the pool."

Compare and contrast to Jackson - a bronze medallist in Beijing - whose improvements in the 200 plus days since her race in the Water Cube are there for the world to see and take note of.

When the going gets tough and all that.

It's true the year after the Olympics can be an anti-climax.

Australia's Leisel Jones has already revealed that she will miss this year's World Championships because she'd rather complete the beauty school diploma she has recently started.

But given the fact she's already the world and Olympic 100m breaststroke champion, and the world record holder, it seems fair to cut her some slack as she plans for a post-pool future.

Selectively quoting Carry as a standard-bearer for the men's team may not be fair but you have to hope it's not an indication of a bigger problem.

JAMES TONEY in Sheffield

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