SWINDON-BORN Hannah Miley fell short in her bid to cause a major shock in the 400m individual medley final at the World Championships yesterday.

The 21-year-old went into the showdown in Shanghai having swam a season’s best in the semi, but she was forced to settle for seventh as 15-year-old Chinese Shiwen Ye announced herself as a new global star by powering through in the closing stages to take victory.

Miley’s butterfly has never been her strongest stroke and she was at the rear of a high-class field following the opening 50m, while Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu led.

The backstroke saw the Garioch flyer make up some ground on those ahead of her as she edged into seventh, but she was unable to make further headway.

Out front, the United States’ world record holder Ariana Kukors was in control after the breaststroke, but in a thrilling final 50m Commonwealth champion Alicia Coutts overhauled her rival, only for Ye to storm back from nowhere touch the wall in 2:08.90, a tenth of a second ahead of Coutts with Kukors in third.

Miley finished in 2:11.36 and can afford to be pleased with that effort, safe in the knowledge that her stronger event, the 400m individual medley, in which she is European champion, is to come on Sunday.

Meanwhile, British Swimming head coach Dennis Pursley has revealed he is satisfied with Great Britain's performance so far at the World Championships.

Keri-Anne Payne and Rebecca Adlington have grabbed gold and silver in the 10k open water event and the 400m freestyle respectively, while GB have other medal prospects to come.

And 61-year-old Pursley believes the team are on track for a good meet, saying: “We are placing higher than we came into the competition.

"We are ahead of Rome (where the 2009 championships were held) in the number of swimmers in finals after two days than we were then. We've got a lot of swims left in us.

"I've been doing this for many years and served on three national teams, I am yet to see one for which it all goes your way. Overall I am pretty pleased with that.”

Wootton Bassett’s Jazz Carlin is the next local swimmer in action in Shanghai, when she competes in the 800m freestyle heats in the early hours of Friday morning.

Carlin could then be in action on Saturday depending on how she gets on, with Miley to come on Sunday in the 400m individual medley.