Gain for Payne

Payne: Hoping for early Olympic qualification

Open water swimming star Keri-Anne Payne admits her head would "explode" if she kept thinking about the Olympics.

So the 23-year-old is hoping to get qualification for London 2012 out of the way a year early when she competes at July's World Championships in Shanghai.

Payne, who claimed a dramatic silver medal in the inaugural 10k marathon swim at the Beijing Games before winning world gold in Rome a year later, will be among the favourites for glory at Jinshan City Beach on July 19 - she only requires a top-10 finish to seal her place in London.

Payne will then only have a week to recover before quickly turning her attention to matters in the pool.

The South African-born Stockport Metro swimmer has also been given the chance to challenge for honours in the 1500m freestyle having smashed Rebecca Cooke's eight-year-old British record by more than eight seconds in Manchester back in March, while she'll also be part of the 4x200m free relay squad.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's British Gas Great London Swim, Payne said: "It will be a tremendously difficult challenge to combine them all at one meeting. It's much easier doing say an open water race at one time then going away to prepare for a pool event - but having to do them all within two weeks is going to be so difficult.

"I'm looking forward to doing all the events and I've just got to make sure I recover as much as I can before I start the 1500m after the 10k.

"The training is very similar to be honest. I don't really do that much training outdoors because it is quite cold in Britain.

"I do the British Gas Great Swim series because it's brilliant training but in terms of day to day training, it's all in the pool and my 10k work helps me prepare for the 1500m too. It's all similar except for when I train for the relay.

"The Great London swim is at the Royal Victoria Dock and it will be a good little test before heading out to the worlds to see how things are going. It's always good to get more actual open water experience, which is why I'm doing it."

Eyes on the prize

Payne, fresh from high altitude training in the mountains of Sierra Nevada in Spain, has been in great form this year having won the Open Water World Cup event in Israel, which booked her place at the World Championships, and also the Great Salford Swim.

Now she's focused firmly on ensuring her spot on Team GB for the Olympics and reclaiming her title of world champion which she lost in Canada last year.

"It would be amazing to have that spot so early and it would take a lot of pressure off my shoulders in terms of open water," said Payne, who will be joined by Beijing bronze medallist Cassie Patten in Shanghai.

"I would be able to go to the Olympic trials for the pool next year much more relaxed because hopefully I will have already made the team for the open water event.

"I think the pressure will still be there for the pool because it's going to be so difficult to make the team for those events.

"There are other ways of qualifying for open water but if we want two Brits at the Olympics then we both have to finish top 10 in the worlds.

"Whether you win a medal or not just depends on the day, how you're feeling and who performs best. At the worlds in Canada last year I came eighth because I just wasn't very good on the day so I lost my title unfortunately.

"I can't control what everybody else does so I need to go out there and do my own swim and do what I do best."

Despite attempting to get her Olympics qualification in the bag, Payne is trying her best not to keep thinking about London 2012 and all the excitement surrounding it.

She said: "If I had to think about it every day then my head would explode I'm sure! Training isn't always about the Olympics because you don't train extra hard a year before.

"I've been training since I was 10 or 11 really hard every single day - so it's been a long time. And if I had thought about the Olympics since we were awarded them then my head would explode.

"It's all about thinking ahead to the next big competition and right now that's the world championships with a chance there to qualify for the Olympics.

"Then I can start looking ahead to London a bit more but it's not something we think about on a daily basis."

Payne is encouraged by the growth of open water swimming in the UK and hopes the impact of hosting the Olympics will boost participation further.

Open to all

She said: "The interest in open water swimming has increased already and 20,000 people have registered to do the British Gas swim which is amazing. Every time I speak to someone about it they can't wait for the next race.

"Open water swimming is definitely getting a lot more coverage than it has ever had before.

"On the Great Swim website there's a lot of information on there to help you with training. I recommend you go swimming with a friend because it makes it a lot easier and you've got to make sure you can swim a good distance before entering one of these swims."

Asked whether she prefers the pool over taking on the dangers of the open water, Payne added: "There's definitely good bits and bad bits about both of them and I couldn't say which I prefer. I enjoy being in the pool because that's where I started and I guess it's where my heart is but I do love the freedom of open water swimming and I have been to some absolutely amazing locations.

"Getting stung by jelly fish for almost two hours was horrible in Melbourne in 2007 but on the flip side, earlier this year in Israel I was swimming alongside Manta Rays so that was pretty cool.

"I remember thinking 'keep swimming keep swimming - stop following the Manta Rays!'"