FORMER Colchester Swimming Club member Laura Stephens looks set to compete at the Olympics after producing two sensational swims at the Glasgow Open Meet.

The former Colchester County High School for Girls pupil, who is now based at Plymouth Leander, put together a well-paced race to win the women’s 200 metres butterfly, at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre.

Stephens smashed her lifetime best by more than half-a-second in recording a 2:07.04 in the heats session.

The Wix swimmer finished strongly after four well-paced laps to touch comfortably inside the 2:08.32 Tokyo consideration time for the event.

Her excellent time was a massive one-and-a-half seconds inside the British Olympic consideration time and was the fifth fastest time in the world this year.

It also moved her up to fourth on the British all-time list.

After obliterating her personal best (PB) in the heats, she backed that up in the final with another superb swim, where she went under the consideration time again.

She clocked a time of 2:08.15 to win by more than a second, with fellow former Colchester SC swimmer Sophie Freeman finishing sixth in the same race.

The 22-year-old kept close behind international teammate Alys Thomas down the first 100m and then turned on the speed at the opportune moment to claim another fantastic result and outline her Olympic credentials.

She said: “I couldn't really ask for much more at this meet. It's been really tough turning it round after Selection Trials, having a bit of a disappointing swim there, and Europeans also, more strong swims but outside the consideration time.

"So to come here and get it twice, with a pretty substantial PB yesterday, was really the icing on the cake. Third time's a charm, isn't it?!

“In all honesty, I didn't come in with any expectations, I just came in with an open mind.

"We've been in a bit of a difficult situation with training, do we taper, do we not taper, so I'm not exactly fully rested for this meet. I just came in and thought, 'it's my last shot, so I'm going to give it everything I have' - and it's paid off.”

The Glasgow meeting was the last chance for any Great Britain swimmers who had not already booked their Tokyo spot to seal their place at the Olympics.

British Swimming had already selected 28 athletes for the team but the Glasgow Meet offered a late opportunity to seal a trip to Japan.

Stephens had been frustrated to not get the Olympic consideration times at the British trials in April, where she missed out on the 100m butterfly time by 0.06 of a second and was third in her favoured 200m butterfly event.