8 August 2009
Jo Jackson, who claimed two individual silver medals and one relay bronze at the recent World Championships in Rome, rounded off a memorable season by claiming the world record in the 400m freestyle at the short-course (25m) British Gas Grand Prix in Leeds this evening.

The 22-year-old Be Number 1 swimmer led from start to finish before touching home in a time of 3:54.92, fully 1.17secs inside Laure Manaudou's previous mark.

Jackson, of course, also established the world record in the 400m long-course event in March, although that was reclaimed by Federica Pellegrini at the World Championships, when the Italian became the first woman to swim under four minutes.

Of her latest record, Jackson said: "That was my aim. I pulled out of all my swims here and my coach let me do that and he said: ‘If you do the 400, make sure you give it a good go. It's your last swim of the season.’

"I'm swimming really well at the moment and the world record has been there for a while, so it was set in my mind. I didn't know if I was going to do it, it was a tough swim. The time I went, I was pretty shocked. I didn't expect to go that quick.

"I'm really happy with it. I can relax a bit and chill out with my family and friends and then get back into training in September and get ready for next year."

Tonight’s achievement completes a memorable 12 months for Jackson, who was third in the 400m freestyle event at the Beijing Olympics last summer before eclipsing Pellegrini's long-course world record in Sheffield in March.

And then the Loughborough swimmer bagged those two individual silver medals and a freestyle relay bronze at the World Championships.

"It's been great," Jackson said. "To get an Olympic medal was amazing. And then to come back and break the world record was even better. Things have gone from strength to strength with me. To get three medals at the world championships, I never thought I'd get that many."