Now 17 she has set over 40 British junior and senior records and was part

Now 17, she has set over 40 British junior and senior records and was part of the 4 x 200m freestyle relay team that broke the world short-course record last year. Then, last month, she announced herself to the world by breaking the two-minute barrier in the 200m freestyle, swimming aBritish-record 1min 59.32sec and putting herself third in the world this year.Jackson lives in Richmond, in North Yorkshire, and trains 25 miles away in Derwentside with her coach, Dave McNulty, who has brought her on carefully. “While she was growing, we’ve added to her programme gradually,” said McNulty. “A year ago we put her up to seven sessions a week and now it’s eight.”This is in stark contrast to the many youngsters who are burnt out at 15 by overwork. But now that Jackson is close to 6ft tall, McNulty has put her on to much heavier land-work, with immediate benefit. “She’s still fresh and is ready to move on and do more,” he said. “There is so much extra to come from Nicola, it’s really exciting.”Jackson’s even temperament – anchoring a team to a world record is just the same to her as swimming in a local gala – is a gift that may bring Britain some much needed success, and she also has medal chances in Wednesday’s final of the 4 x 200m freestyle, where she will be joined by Karen Pickering.The best hopes among the men are Mark Foster, who in the absence of the missing Alex Popov (he has a throat infection) should be in the hunt in the 50m freestyle, and the Olympic bronze medallist from Atlanta, Graeme Smith, who has a chance in the 800m freestyle.But Britain’s women are probably better equipped for success, especially in the backstroke events, with Bath’s Jo Fargus, who set a British record in the 200m last month that would have been good enough for bronze in Sydney, and Sarah Price, who is ranked third in the worldin the 100m.

Alison Sheppard is ranked fourth in the 50m freestyle, and Rebecca Cooke is second in the world this year in the 1500m freestyle.However, Sweetenham is pragmatic about Britain’s chances. “I’ve been impressed with the rise in standards but we can’t get too excited about our chances,” he said. “No British swimmer was ranked in the top four last year and they are your medal prospects for this year.”. The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, due to be run for the 51st time at Ascot on Saturday, is the big one The Open golf, Wimbledon, an Ashes Test, the Tour de France. A midsummer all-comers’ contest that has more often than not in its half-century of existence identified the horse of the year – certainly more regularly than the autumn championship pretender in France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

It is the occasion that produced a legitimate contender for the race of the century, a race that is certainly the one most people living would name as such, the epic struggle 26 years ago when Grundy beat Bustino. The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, due to be run for the 51st time at Ascot on Saturday, is the big one The Open golf, Wimbledon, an Ashes Test, the Tour de France. A midsummer all-comers’ contest that has more often than not in its half-century of existence identified the horse of the year – certainly more regularly than the autumn championship pretender in France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It is the occasion that produced a legitimate contender for the race of the century, a race that is certainly the one most people living would name as such, the epic struggle 26 years ago when Grundy beat Bustino.
Six days hence the 2001 running is scheduled, and with it comes the possibility of another seminal moment. The unbeaten three-year-old Galileo, consummately easy winner of Derbys at Epsom and the Curragh, will be entering the crucible of open-age competition for the first time. The colt has swept all before him in his five races, but before he can be mentioned in the same breath as Nijinsky or Shergar he must defeat the best of the older brigade over this classic mile and a half.

If he can crush a horse like Fantastic Light, a battle-hardened five-year-old who has won 10 of his 22 races and produced a career-best effort last time out to capture the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at the Royal meeting on this course with a tremendous burst of speed, we can acknowledge not just a very, very good horse, but a great one.The sub-plots in this Group One head-to-head between the two great superpowers are of pride and revenge. Galileo, trained by Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, runs for the Co Tipperary-based John Magnier-Michael Tabor axis at Coolmore Stud and Ballydoyle stables, Fantastic Light for Sheikh Mohammed’s Newmarket- and Dubai-centred Godolphin operation.This season the Irish have been in the ascendant, with eight Group One wins to Godolphin’s four. The Godolphin team have the outstanding modern King George record, Saeed bin Suroor having saddled four of the last six winners: Lammtarra, Swain (twice) and Daylami. But Fantastic Light had to settle for second place last year behind Tabor and Magnier’s breathtakingly easy winner Montjeu.A double helping of humble pie is a possibility here, but it was the Godolphin colours which were the first to be planted in the Ascot turf this time round. “All the hype over this race aside,” said their racing manager, Simon Crisford, “the facts are that Galileo is the undisputed best of the three-year-olds and Fantastic Light is the best of the older horses We’re up for the challenge, they’ve picked up the gauntlet.

Game on.” The increasing globalisation of racing, with large purses up for grabs, has encouraged the retention in training of horses beyond their three-year-old careers. Fantastic Light, who raced in five countries on three continents in taking last year’s World Series (the £750,000 King George is the second leg), is a typical Sheikh Mohammed late developer, in the mould of durable idols like Singspiel, Swain and Daylami.His task on Saturday, in a contest where the young generation get their most generous weight concession of the season, will be merely to rescue the campaign for his side and scupper the world title aspirations of the opposition. “By our standards it has not been a great year,” said Crisford. “In the first part of the season, when the focus is on three-year-old racing, not having a Classic contender puts you out of the game. But this race is what Godolphin is all about, as our record might indicate.