Miley's record swim has a silver lining

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In the unlikely setting of the MEN Arena, where singers are more common than swimmers, Miley swam inside the old record for the 400metres individual medley but was beaten by Zimbabwe's Olympic backstroke champion Kirsty Coventry.

So near: Hannah Miley was just beaten in the final

British records fell as often as they had last week at the British Championships in Sheffield, when Olympic places were at stake.

Miley, 18, who is coached by her father Patrick, a North Sea helicopter pilot, smashed the national 400m individual medley record in the heats and again in the final, finishing with an improvement on the day of more than five seconds.

Her final time of 4min 27.27sec was not enough to beat Coventry, but the European record confirmed the promise the teenager from Aberdeenshire had shown in qualifying for this summer's Beijing Games team.

For Jessica Dickons, from Stockton, a bronze in the 200m butterfly and a British record were some consolation for missing the Olympic team largely because a fracture in her vertebrae put her out of action for two months at the end of last year.

A time of 2:05.09, which beat the British record set only in the morning by Stockton clubmate Jemma Lowe, was a personal best time by a second and a half.

Lowe, who took almost a second off the year-old record in her heat, paid the price in the final for a crazy pace in the opening lengths.

She covered the first two in 27.45sec, well inside world record pace, and while she sustained her lead until 150 metres there was nothing left in the tank. She finished fourth, eight-tenths of a second behind her team-mate.

Lowe said: 'I didn't know how fast I was going. With all the excitement and everything I went for it and I didn't have anything left. Still the goal was making the Olympics last week.'

Another to set a British record was backstroker Liam Tancock in the 100m, but such was the standard that although he went close to his new record of 51.43sec again in the semi-finals of the 100m, he qualified only as the slowest of the eight in today's final.