Wyld thing books her World championship spot

By djones bydaniel jones daniel.jones@essnmedia.co.uk

AFTER bravely battling back from injury Katherine Wyld has secured her place at the FINA World Championships.

Wyld sealed a berth on Great Britain's 4x100m relay team with a strong performance at the Scottish Championships in Glasgow last weekend.

The Leatherhead SC member missed out on selection in the 50m freestyle by 200ths of a second, but stormed to victory in the 100m in a time of 55.52 seconds to book her place in Rome later this month.

The 23-year-old Nottingham University student has been plagued by a nagging hip injury this season, but hopes that is now firmly behind her as she returns to the international fold.

After representing her country at the World Championships in 2007, she narrowly missed out on a place at the Olympics in Beijing last year. However, now she is back in the GB team Wyld intends to stay firmly put.

"I'm absolutely delighted to have made it, it makes all the hard work in training worthwhile," she said. "It's great to be back in the squad and that's where I want to stay.

"I picked up a hip injury out of nowhere and have been doing some gruelling sessions to get back to fitness.

"The selection has just given me a huge boost and I'm really excited and getting back out and representing my country."

Wyld will join her fellow GB teammates at a holding camp in Sardinia on July 14, before heading over to Rome for the championships which begin three days later.

Having just finished her studies for the year Wyld is now focusing fully on her efforts in the pool and is hopeful of returning from the championships with a medal.

"I'm not sure how we'll do out there," she said "Obviously I'd love to win a medal, but who knows.

"I think the girls finished seventh or eighth at the Olympics but there's a few changes to the team since then and we'll just have to see how we go."

Wyld will have the benefit of tapping into the experiences of Nova Centurion team mate and double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington before the big event.

The pair are good friends and Wyld has been grateful for Adlington's support through her tougher times earlier this season.

"She's been brilliant," said Wyld. "She's obviously gone through a lot this past year but she has been so supportive to me as well.

"I can get quite down on myself sometimes but Rebecca has made me feel much better. We don't do a lot of training together as I'm a sprinter and she does the longer events but outside the pool we're good friends and help each other as much as we can."