JAZZ Carlin has been dealt an injury blow ahead of the Rio Olympics as she was unable to defend her European 800m crown as she had to settle for silver in London this evening.

Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas took the gold medal in a time of 8 minutes 21.40 seconds, with Carlin 2.12 seconds behind, ahead of Slovakia’s Tjasa Oder who took bronze.

"I was injured so my season is very hard now," she said.

"The good thing is that I'm faster than in the trials so I am on the right track.

"I would've loved to have got the gold, but I raced tough.

"It's about working hard and to race hard. You'll get those close races in Rio."

Having qualified for the final yesterday with the second quickest time, Swindon's Carlin, who now lives in Bradford on Avon, started in lane five at the London Aquatics Centre.

However, the 25-year-old was always chasing as Netherland’s Sharon Van Rouwendaal set the early pace touching in first place after the first 100m, just over half a second ahead of Carlin.

Van Rouwendaal held onto the pace for the first 250m before Spain’s Maria Vilas Vidal took over, with Carlin down in fourth place, 0.62 seconds off the pace.

Kapas took control at the 350m mark as she touched in the lead for the first time as she finished the first half of the race in a time of time of 4:11.48, 0.87 seconds ahead of Carlin who had now lifted herself to third place.

The University of Bath-based made a move on second-placed Vilas Vidal in the next 50m but continued to lose ground on Kapas as the Hungarian had now taken her advantage to over a second.

That advantage had stretched to 2.75 by the three quarter stage and, with the home crowd behind her, Carlin responded as she was fighting to keep Vilas Vidal at bay.

Carlin took 0.14 seconds off Kapas’ lead in the next 50m but the Hungarian responded herself and never looked troubled as she kept her distance in the remaining 150m and touched home 2.12seconds ahead of Carlin.

Carlin, who is in the middle of a heavy training programme, finished on a time of 8:23.52, which was 6.01 seconds quicker than the time she set in qualifying and four seconds quicker than the time she swam to claim her British gold medal last month.

Carlin later swam the first leg as Great Britain just missed out on a medal in the women's 4x200m freestyle, finishing fourth.