Teddington Swimming Club’s James Stanhope lines up against other Olympic hopefuls at the British Gas National Swimming Championships and Olympic trials today, writes Ros Satar.

The 17-year-old achieved the 50m freestyle qualifying time of 24.23 seconds in July last year and followed that up with the 100m butterfly qualifying time at the Southern Zonal Championships in January with a time of 57.12 seconds.

But head coach Ed Sinclair insisted it was too soon to talk about Stanhope making the London Games.

“It’s a phenomenal achievement to qualify,” he said.

“He’s come through the club since he started swimming and still has another year before he goes to university.

“The trials will be mixed so he really will get a chance to race with the seniors.”

“He’s a high hope for Rio 2016.”

The trials will also be used to pick the team for the European Championships, being held in Antwerp in May.