Rebecca Adlington believes British swimmers will be in the hunt for medals at the 2012 Olympics despite being blown out of the water by their American rivals in the Duel in the Pool.

Team USA dominated the two-day contest over Europe 185-78 in Manchester but double Olympic champion Adlington said the British swimmers could take heart from their efforts.

"The Americans are the best swimming team in the world right now and that's just the sort of people you need to test yourselves against in the build-up to London 2012," said the 20-year-old.

"We would have liked the scoreline to be closer but there's a lot for us to be pleased about going forward to the Olympics. We've clearly got a lot of medal contenders in our team."

While Adlington's 800m freestyle win proved popular with the 2,000-strong crowd, the pick of the victories belonged to 22-year-old British law student Michael Rock, who came from relative obscurity to stun Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly.

Rock took a comfortable victory although admittedly wearing the 100 per cent polyurethane suits that will be banned from 1 January. He said: "I'm wearing what is legal this year."

Phelps had been scathing about the controversial suits at the start of the meet but the 14-time Olympic champion admitted: "He won because he swam a better race than I did."

The American revealed he would even be training on Christmas Day following his defeat to Rock.

"I would rather lose races now than when they really count in the World Championships next summer and the Olympics after that," said the 24-year-old. "Everything now is a stepping stone for 2012." 

Like Phelps, Adlington's results, while not world record pace, were all the more impressive having been achieved in the textile suits that will be worn by all swimmers from the new year. Her time of 8min 10.59sec was the second fastest 800m ever and made amends for what she called "a difficult year".

There were also British victories for Lizzie Simmonds, who won the 100m and 200m backstroke events at Manchester Aquatics Centre, Francesca Halsall, who marked herself out as a potential star in London 2012 with three wins and James Goddard, who won the touch in the 200m individual relay.

As a contest, though, it was over on Friday as a star-studded American line-up ended with a 56-point lead that a European team, which also consisted of German and Italian swimmers, never looked like clawing back.