JAZZ Carlin has kicked off her 2015 season in fine style with a victory in her first race of the year in Belgium.

The Swindon-born swimmer started where she left off last year as she recorded a time of 8.25.18 in the 800m freestyle at the Flanders Speedo Cup in Antwerp.

The former Tigersharks swimmer, clocked split times of 4.15.17 and 4.10.01 to beat her time of 8.26.12 in the same meeting a year ago.

Carlin made the decision at the end of last year to train at Bath with coach Dave McNulty and on this result it appears to have been a smooth transition.

The 24-year-old, who was named British Swimming Athlete of the Year for 2014, broke away from Hungarian Katinka Hosszu on the 5th 100m with the gap between the pair just a hand over the first 400m but that was stretched to over two seconds after 500m.