HANNAH Miley will go for gold in the final of the 200m individual medley at the World Championships in Shanghai this afternoon.

The Swindon-born flyer came through two heats yesterday and will take on the likes of 2007 world champion Stephanie Rice and world record holder Ariana Kukors of the United States in today’s showdown, which is expected to go ahead shortly after midday (BST).

Having qualified from her semi in a season’s best time of 2:10.95, Miley can afford to be confident of her chances of a positive finish, which the Garioch swimmer will view as a bonus given that her stronger event, the 400m individual medley, in which she is reigning European champion, is to begin on Sunday.

The 21-year-old clocked 2:11.95 as she finished third in a tight finish to heat three, behind Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu.

And she then served notice of her intentions by completing her semi exactly a second quicker and finishing second behind Commonwealth champion Alicia Coutts, especially impressive given that she was virtually at the rear of the field following the opening 50m butterfly leg, her weakest stroke.

But powerful efforts in the backstroke and the breaststroke saw her turn for the last time in fourth place, and an impressive freestyle leg resulted in her overhauling Hosszu and the United States’ Caitlin Leverenz.

Ever the perfectionist, Miley revealed afterwards: “I still need to look at my 50m splits, I’m probably not quite as quick as some of the other girls.”

Meanwhile, Swindon’s Grant Turner declared himself happy after helping Great Britain to eighth place in the final of the 4x100m freestyle.

The Olympic hopeful and Adver columnist swam a third leg of 48.86 as Team GB clocked 3:15.03, while Australia took gold, France silver and the United States bronze.

Turner, who teamed up with fellow Loughborough flyer Liam Tancock and American-based pair Adam Brown and Simon Burnett, said: “We’re pleased with that.

“The rest of the world is starting to look at us and take us a bit more seriously, which hasn’t maybe been the case for many years now.”

Elsewhere, Wootton Bassett’s Jazz Carlin broke down in tears after an untimely bout of glandular fever robbed her of the chance to lay down a London 2012 marker.

The 20-year-old looked a shadow of the swimmer who claimed three domestic silver medals in March as she bowed out of the heats of the 400m freestyle.

Carlin revealed she was laid low with glandular fever in April and May following her medal exploits at the British Championships and the effects were clearly still in evidence in China.

After picking up Commonwealth silver and bronze in Delhi, all expectations were that Carlin would announce herself on the world stage this week, but instead the Welsh record holder’s time of 4:09.64 seconds was only good enough for 15th place, 1.71 seconds shy of a spot in the final.

“It’s a really strong event and I had a really tough heat with (world record holder) Federica Pellegrini in it,” said Carlin, who finished fifth in her heat.

“I’ve not been well but I went out there and I gave it my all, I’m disappointed not to make the final but I gave it the best I could.

“I’ve been training hard but I just wasn’t able to get the result I hoped I could.”

British Gas is supporting the British Gas GBR Swimming Team to win more gold medals, as part of its partnership with the sport at all levels. For more information visit www.britishgas.co.uk/swimming.