Rebecca Adlington had to endure a nervous few moments as she almost missed out on qualifying for tonight's, July 29 final of the 400m freestyle, The Telegraph reported.

She won her heat comfortably but as she had been drawn against a weaker group she had to watch as, in the following two heats, swimmer after swimmer went faster than her. It was with pure relief that she saw her name taking the eighth and last place when the line-up was announced on the scoreboard.

Adlington won her heat in 4:05.75 but knew she needed to clock a good time with so many of her rivals swimming in the two heats after her. She took the race out hard and led from the first turn. By the end of the first 100m she was a body length up on her rivals. With the lead established she began to ease off and make sure she did not burn out ahead of tonight's final - it could have proved costly. "It felt faster," was her pithy verdict as she went to watch the other heats.