Olympics: Fame Will Not Faze Adlington, Says Coach

Rebecca Adlington was yesterday installed as the early favorite to become BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The Nottinghamshire swimmer is priced at 6-4 to win this year's award, according to Ladbrokes after winning her second gold medal of the Olympics, in the 800m freestyle, in world record time.

But despite her remarkable ascent into the spotlight, her coach, Bill Furniss, is confident she will remain grounded. "She's a Mansfield girl and she'll always be a Mansfield girl," he said after Saturday's victory, satisfied that celebratory open-top bus rides and talk of damehoods will not distract the teenager. "This won't go to her head at all. She loves swimming, she's driven and she enjoys it. Quite often I have to say: 'Look that's enough, take a day off.' Like everyone she has her moments but so would anyone if they worked as hard as these people do. She's just a joy to work with."

Victory in the 800m freestyle made Adlington the first British swimmer to win two individual Olympic golds since 1908 and Saturday's win was never in doubt. By 200m only Camelia Alina Potec of Romania could keep up with her and Adlington had established an unassailable lead by halfway, eventually taking 2.12sec off Janet Evans' 1989 world record.

Her triumphs here may have surprised many but Furniss has no doubt why she has thrived. "She's just the ultimate racer, she works incredibly hard and she's technically superb," he explained. "Her strokes are economical, well-balanced, fluent, strong ... everything you would want in freestyle technique. After 200 meters of her last race I thought she was going to be difficult to beat because she was just so fast and smooth. She's a bubbly character but she's so driven and so focused."

There was disappointment, though, for the Team GB women who missed out on a medal in the 4x100m medley relay yesterday as the Australian four set yet another world record at the Water Cube to take gold. A British and European record best of 3:57.50 was enough only for fourth as the Australians knocked three seconds of their previous mark to win in 3:52.69. The United States took silver, with China fending off the British challenge for bronze.