SWINDON’S Jazz Carlin was unable to defend her British 400m freestyle crown as she was forced to settle for a silver medal in Sheffield this evening.

The 26-year-old, who claimed gold in the 800m freestyle final on Wednesday, having secured bronze in the 200m freestyle the day before, secured the clean sweep of medals with a time of four minutes 7.24 seconds.

Carlin qualified for this evening’s final at a canter in the final heat this morning, with a second-fastest time of 4:12.71, just 0.22 of a second off Holly Hibbott.

It was that pair that pushed it all the way in the final, with Carlin setting out the faster of the two, almost a second ahead of the chasing Hibbott by the 150m stage.

However, Hibbott put in a quick fourth 50m of 31.08 to turn at the halfway stage in the lead ahead of the Tigersharks swimmer.

Carlin was able to respond and retake the lead and last year’s Olympic silver medallist looked set to turn the screw as she led heading into the final 100m.

But it was not to be as Hibbott dug deep and finished with a personal best time of 4:06.37, courtesy of a fine final 50m of 29.84, to finish 0.87 seconds ahead of Carlin.