JAZZ Carlin remains on course to defend her European 800m freestyle crown after securing her place in the final this morning.

Swindon’s Carlin, who now lives in Bradford on Avon and qualified for the Rio Olympics last month, went in the final heat at the London Aquatics Centre.

She kept off the challenge from Italy’s Diletta Carli and Slovakia’s Tjasa Oder to claim the win in heat three with a time of 8 minutes 29.53 seconds.

That was the second fastest time of the morning, with Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas claiming the quickest time in heat two with a time of 8.27.75.

Carlin started strongly and had already put 0.61 of a second between her and the chasing pack by the first turn.

The University of Bath-based swimmer was able to stretch that advantage to over a second when she turned at 150m.

Carlin’s lead was out to 1.79 seconds over Oder by 300m before the Slovakian started to slowly reel the 25-year-old back in.

Oder was able to close within a second by the three-quarter mark but Carlin responded and regained a comfortable gap of 1.52 seconds in the next 100m.

Carli looked strong in the final 100m as she took second place from Oder but left it too late to challenge Carlin as she finished 0.88 seconds behind the Swindon swimmer.

Carlin’s time was just over two seconds slower than the time she recorded in the final of the British Championships last month, and almost 23 seconds slower than the world record time of 8:06.68 set by Katie Ledecky in 2016.

The final of the 800m will be in the evening session tomorrow at the London Aquatics Centre.