Buxton swim star Abbie Wood is hoping to go one better at the Commonwealth Games

The 23-year-old just missed out on a bronze medal on her Olympics debut at Tokyo 202, finishing just 0.11 seconds behind American Kate Douglas.

Achieving a fantastic time of 2:08.52 in the 200m individual medley final, Abbie earned herself a new personal best time and will now try to build on that in Birmingham.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself for these Games,” she said. “I’m really enjoying my training at the moment, so I’m hoping that will reflect in the pool.

“I think this year has been quite hard for a few people to get back into the swing of things after Covid. So, I’m looking forward to building on my performance at the World Championships and hopefully compete for some medals. I’ve been doing some running and cycling just to feel good about myself and I think that’s really been working for me.

“I’ve loved the last few weeks of training and I hope that will show at the Games.”

Having seen how the Japanese backed their athletes in Tokyo, Abbie knows how vital the home crowd can be.

“When we were in Tokyo, the Japanese athletes were getting huge cheers,” she said.

“It’s nice to know that those cheers will be for us this time - it’s great knowing that everyone is behind you. I didn’t realise how hard it was for my parents not to be at Tokyo with me too, especially when it was my first successful senior international.”