SWIMMING star Jay Lelliot is quietly confident of his chances of success at the British National Championships as he goes in search of an Olympic qualification spot as well as competition glory.

The 21-year-old from Portland has swam well over the winter, picking up good results in Sheffield, Austin, Texas and Flanders.

He has also got back to some of his best form after suffering a shoulder injury last year that left him unable to hit his consistent best.

But he is wary of talking his chances up despite his good form, hoping his performances in the water will do the talking for him.

“I’m feeling pretty good in the water,” the swimmer told Echosport. “It has been an alright start to the year but I am wary of talking about it (national championships) too much. I know what I can do and I want to show that. I’m keeping a very level head on things.”

Lelliott goes into the competition - that starts on Tuesday - as one of the big names having set an English record in the 1500 metre freestyle back in December.

He will race in four events over the course of the week – 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle and the 200m butterfly – and although he has previous competition experience at the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships, he knows this won’t count for much.

He explained: “My competitors have far more experience than me. There are people who have done Olympic trials before and I have never done one (Olympic trial) before so it will be a whole different sort of pressure.

 “I think I am capable of swimming the times, that doesn’t mean I think they will be easy times to get by any stretch of the imagination.

“But the team is unbelievable. We’re in a stage of British swimming where we have never had this much depth.

“It is really hard to get into any national teams at the moment so if you can do that then you are doing really well for yourself.”

If Lelliott, who is taking a year out from his Sports Performance degree at Bath University, does make the team for the Olympics he will flying out to Rio de Janeiro at the end of July. But this won’t be the first time the swimmer has been to the host city, having spent time out there in preparation for this summer.

“When we out the camp was designed around what the Olympics is going to be like, Lelliott said. “We were training between 10pm and midnight and that was really tough to get used to.

“Being out in the country where the Games are going to be hosted gives you a great sense of occasion and it makes you more motivated to get back out there.

“It also means I am on the coaches’ radar. At the same time there was three distant swimmers out there; Dan Jervis, Sephen Milne and myself.

“Only two of us can go and there are lots more on the British scene that can do something at trials so they’re keeping an eye on us but we’re certainly not selected.”

With qualification being Lelliott’s only goal at the moment, Rio is still very much on the horizon for the 21-year-old, however due to the difficulty of qualification, he knows a spot on the team means he has the potential to swim well on the biggest stage of them all.

He added: “They’re making it so difficult for us to qualify, so they are only taking swimmers who have final potential within them.

“I wouldn’t rule out a medal but it is a massive step and there are a lot of good swimmers out there.

“So many things would have to go right for that to happen and the first step is qualifying next week.”