Carlin bids to go faster (From Swindon Advertiser)

Carlin bids to go faster

6:00am Saturday 16th March 2013 in Sport By Ned Payne

RESURGENT Jazz Carlin is confident she can get even faster after exploding back onto the international swimming scene at the British Gas International Meet last weekend.

Swindon’s freestyle flyer missed out on qualification for London 2012 due to illness but swam long course competitively for the first time in nine months at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds.

The 22-year-old racked up three golds and two Welsh records to finish as the talking point of the event, and now she is focused on going even quicker ahead of World Championship trials in June.

Speaking on her 800m triumph specifically, the first of her three wins in West Yorkshire, Carlin said: “I was full of emotions on the Thursday.

“I was very nervous beforehand because I hadn’t raced for a long time and I kind of stressed myself out a lot beforehand, but touching the wall and seeing a best time was just overwhelming.

“I wish I could bottle up that feeling and keep it because it was just amazing. It was a nice time and quite unexpected. Now I want to be faster and I can be faster.

“There’s still things I want to improve on and I think that’s what the meet was for, so we could find out what else we can do in training that will make me faster.

“I didn’t expect to do the times that I did. I have been training really well but I wasn’t rested so it was a bit of a shock, and I think it shocked my coach (Bud McAllister) a bit as well.

“It was nice to put myself on the map again. I’m happy with the times for now and the meet has definitely helped me.

“A lot of people have been there with me through the harder times so it’s nice that they get to see me coming out of it as well.

“Having my family and friends there as well has been great and I can’t thank everyone enough for the support.”

The former Swindon Tigershark also stormed to gold in the 400m and 1500m, the latter of which she had not raced in seven years.

And Carlin has not ruled out the possibility on taking on the latter of those events at World Championship trials, but whether she does or not depends on whether she can manage the workload.

She said: “I’ve normally done the 200m, 400m and 800m and the 1500m is quite a heavy event, it hurts your arms a lot and you can be quite sore after.

“It’s really about going back to the drawing board with plans for June and seeing if my body can manage the distance events and the 400m, which I’d love to be a part of. I’ll speak to my coach about it and we’ll make a decision closer to the event.”

The majority of Carlin’s time between now and June will be spent training, although she will compete in the Celtic Tri Nations Championships in May, a competition that sees Wales, Ireland and Scotland go head to head.