PREPARATIONS are well underway for swimming prodigy Jay Lelliott as he mounts his challenge to qualify for the World Championships.

The Dorchester-born youngster has set his sights on April’s British Championships in order to showcase what he is all about.

He said: “I really want to do well there.

“I’d love to qualify for the World Championships, I’ve never been before and it would be fantastic.”

Lelliott’s ambitions peaked in November in the BUCS (British Universities and College Sports) competition when the 21-year-old racked up an impressive haul of seven medals, including one gold and one silver.

The former Tornadoes of South Dorset member, said: “I was swimming against some really top athletes so it was really good to be a part of.

“I was extremely happy with the outcome. That was a competition where I was in a bad way because I was in really heavy training, so I wasn’t really expecting to swim as well as I did.”

During this time, Lelliott had been battling with a shoulder injury, something which was made worse during the event leading to him being forced out of action for a week ahead of the winter nationals in December.

“I probably only did half to three-quarters of the sessions that I was meant to during that time as I tried to sort the injury out

“It meant I had to do nothing but pure kick-sessions, which wasn’t fun.”

Despite his hampered preparations, the former European bronze medallist came close to beating his PB in the freestyle events, earning two silver medals and a bronze, aswell as a gold in the 200m fly event.

He said: “I was running at very close to my personal best in freestyle but couldn’t quite get them because the injury I had wasn’t really letting me train freestyle or fly, so it was quite difficult to get my best performance in.

“I was quite defensive in those events because if I took off too fast it could push the shoulder too much, or if not I would just fade away because I didn’t have the general fitness to maintain my speed.”

Because of the nature of the injury, this meant the youngster was able to really focus on his backstroke, leading to a seven second PB on the 200m, and a three second PB on the 100m.

This led to a successful January in which Lelliott won another university event, something which has really set him up for a positive year.

“It was so pleasing to win that, it’s just a good way to start the year.

“I feel a lot more relaxed about everything I’m doing. Last year I put a lot of pressure on myself to make the Olympic team and the year before I was not relaxed in what I was doing.

“People would look at my stroke and say it looked awful, because I was so tense. And now I know what I’m doing I can counteract that.

“It just comes down to experience. I’ve been in this game for quite a while now, this is my third or fourth year at this level so I’m just focussed on continuing my learning.”

Lelliott is due to continue his training, before competing in another national event, possibly Edinburgh, before turning his attention to the British Swimming Championships, which take place in Sheffield between 18th - 23rd April.