HANNAH Miley is not taking a break as the countdown to the Olympics gathers momentum.

While her rivals take a rest after a hectic week at the British Championships, she’s straight back in the pool at an event in Amsterdam.

She finished more than 17 seconds behind Rebecca Adlington as she rounded off a busy week, which included world leading times in her signature medley events, with a fourth in the 800m freestyle.

The 22-year-old touched home in 8:35.88minutes as double Olympic champion Adlington left the field for dead to win gold – and Miley admitted not swimming again was never an option.

“I need to step up the metres and I can’t take my foot off the pedal now and I’ve got a competition in Amsterdam next weekend,” said Miley.

“The trials were just the first hurdle. The main aim has always been the Olympic Games so I can’t rest – I can rest after the Games.

“I’ve qualified for the medleys but I’ve raced at least once every day, so that I made sure I kept the training ticking over.

“As a medley swimmer I work best when I’m training. We did it the hard way finishing on the 800m. I was delighted with how it went though and it was just great to be part of that race.”

Adlington stormed to a second gold last night but acknowledged repeating the trick at the main event might not be quite so straightforward.

British swimming’s golden girl added the 800m freestyle to her 400m victory earlier in the week, meaning she will defend both her Beijing titles at London 2012.

Over both distances she now boasts world leading times this year, like Miley, but there are plenty of international rivals who have her in their sights, notably Federica Pellegrini over eight lengths and Lotte Friis in the longer distance.

However, domestically Adlington has no peers, although teenager Eleanor Faulkner, who grabbed the second qualifying spot in the 800m freestyle, is a swimmer whose star is on the rise.

“It’s excruciating when you get out on your own," said Adlington, after a race, won by a 20 metre margin, which was only really with the clock.

“It’s so painful. I wanted to keep pushing myself to try to get a good time but I had no idea how quickly I was going.

“I’m very pleased with that time. Athletes are always trying to find ways to improve and I’ve been on the same time for a couple years so it’s good to be improving.”

Hannah is a member of Team Kellogg’s – Kellogg’s has been supporting British Swimming for more than 15 years on a ‘grassroots to gold medals’ programme of swimming.

For more information visit www.kelloggs.co.uk/swimming.