Fullalove flat out for Rio

Swimming : THE hectic winter schedule continues for 19-year-old Royton swimmer Jess Fullalove in advance of the Rio Olympics trials in April.

Backstroke specialist Fullalove, Team GB’s youngest squad member at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 2014, will continue the build-up with her City of Manchester clubmates. The team travels to Berlin for an international meeting from March 4 to 6.

She will then compete at the Edinburgh International at the Royal Commonwealth pool a week later, before taking in her final warm-up in Sheffield at the Premier long course meet between March 25 and 27.

All this follows a winter campaign which has taken in a warm weather camp in Dubai over Christmas, the Pro-Swim Series tournament in Texas, USA, and the Flanders Cup in Antwerp, Belgium.

In Texas, Fullalove joined a world-class field and finished third in the 200m backstroke ‘B’ final in a time of 2:12:56 and eighth in the 100m backstroke final in 1:02:32 – both satisfying efforts.

It has been a similar tale of hard graft months for Diggle’s London 2012 Olympian Jessica Lloyd.

The long-course specialist has been competing with her City of Manchester club-mates at an international meet in Bolzano, Italy, while also training hard.

But Lloyd has still to clock the times required to reach the Olympic trials following a six-month break from the sport.