Rebecca Adlington, Great Britain’s double Olympic champion, tweeted the reason for her withdrawal from the 400 metres freestyle final at the Barcelona round of the Mare Nostrum Tour yesterday: “Not racing tonight, luckily, I’m knackered! haha”.
A day after a dominant victory — in 8min 19.86sec — in the 800 metres made her the first woman in history to race inside 8min 20sec in a textile suit twice in one year, Adlington, still in full training for the defence of her Olympic crowns in London, led the morning heats of the 400 metres in 4min 9sec before talking to Bill Furniss, her coach, and withdrawing, her test-race mission in Spain complete.
Contrary to reports last week that suggested she would quit Twitter during the Games, Adlington says she is determined not to lose the link she has with 50,000 followers, but will block anything offensive and use the social-networking site sparingly before the defence of her Olympic titles.
After five wins on Saturday, Britain celebrated another three victories yesterday. Hannah Miley and Sophie Allen were first and second in the 200 metres medley, Miley in 2:11.78, Allen in 2:13.51. Britain owned the podium in the men’s 200 metres breaststroke, with Michael Jamieson and Andrew Willis split by James Goddard. There was gold for Georgia Davies in the 50 metres backstroke, too, after she won at 100 metres on Saturday.