MY WORLD Championship journey started on Tuesday, July 12 when the Great Britain team headed out to Osaka for our holding camp.

Japan is eight hours ahead of the UK, so took me a few days to get used to the time change and the humidity was something I have never experienced before.

It was amazing how clean everything was and everyone was so friendly and welcoming, plus the training pool facilities were incredible.

I was sharing a room with Gemma Spofforth, who won gold in the 100m backstroke at the 2009 World Championships.

She is based in Florida so it was good to catch up, and it was really nice to spend time with the team as a whole, as we don’t see each other too often throughout the year.

We then flew to Shanghai, another humid but amazing place, and I was on floor 32 of the hotel so got some great views of the city.

We all went down to the competition pool for a session, and the only way I can describe it is as one big traffic jam.

Everyone was swimming on top of each other and it is so hard to swim with so many people in the same lane, but we managed to get on with it.

We had a few days of training before the competition started so we trained at a few different pools nearby to get a bit more space!

The World Championships started on Sunday, July 24 and I was racing in the 400m freestyle that day.

It was difficult because had been suffering with glandular fever for two months in the build-up, and wasn’t feeling as fresh as I wanted, but I wanted to do the best I could.

I ended up with a time of 4:09.64 which meant I was 15th-fastest overall.

I was a bit disappointed because I really wanted to progress, but it was the fastest heat swim I have done in the morning and I was only 1.7 seconds off making the final.

Next up was the 800m freestyle a few days later, and again I was off my best with a time of 8:34.33 ,which saw me finish in 16th overall.

Despite the disappointment of my results, it was great to have the experience of racing the best in the world.

Coming down with glandular fever in April and May really knocked me back, but I have so much motivation ahead of the Olympics next year.

I'm off for a few weeks now before training starts for the Olympic trials in March, so I’m jetting to Zante with my friends to relax and get some sun.