IN THE end it was Fran Halsall who came to Great Britain’s rescue in Barcelona but after missing out on her own World Championship medal, Hannah Miley vowed to re-establish herself as a podium contender.

Not since 1994 had the British team left a worlds empty-handed and Halsall ensured it would remain that way by claiming 50m freestyle bronze on the final night of action at Palau Sant Jordi.

For Miley her 400m medley bid ended in disappointment as she finished fifth, pushed out of the medals by the stunning improvements made by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and Spain’s Mireia Belmonte.

Miley, 23, beat both swimmers on the way to winning world silver two years ago in Shanghai, with Belmonte fourth and Hosszu exiting in the heats.

But in Barcelona last night Hosszu ruled supreme, swimming under the world record for much of the race before finishing in 4:30.41 with Hosszu second in 4:31.21 and defending champion Elizabeth Beisel third in 4:31.69.

It left Miley in the same position she found herself in London, this time clocking 4:34.16, but the Garioch swimmer, who is famed for her unusual training techniques under father Patrick, hopes to close the gap with help from her home city.

“I’m fifth again but it is faster than what I did at the Olympic Games so I can’t really complain,” she said.

“It is not really the result that everyone wanted and I hate disappointing people because it is a massive disappointment for myself to come away without a medal considering what I did in Shanghai.

“I need to try and do something to make that improvement again. I will analyse it with my dad and Belmonte and Hosszu have really made the massive leaps and bounds and I need to look and see what their gains were and hopefully try and better that.

“I need to try and do something to make that improvement again. We’re getting a long-course pool opening in Aberdeen hopefully sometime next year, so I will be able to pepper my training with more long course which will be great.”

  • BRITAIN'S athletes are funded by UK Sport as the nation’s high performance sports agency responsible for the strategic investment of £355million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding in Olympic and Paralympic sports preparing for Rio 2016. The ambition is to win more medals than in London 2012 while building a stronger more sustainable high performance system.