British swimming star Natalie Jones has been selected for her third Paralympics in Beijing later this year and writes regularly on 606.

Hi everyone

It’s been a very busy time for me over the last few weeks but the end is nearly in sight.

I had two sets of Paralympic trials in Sheffield. The first were good - I swam and tapered really well into it and got the qualifying times I needed for Beijing.

The second ones weren’t as good. I was a bit disappointed because I was fit and ready going into it and I don’t know why but something just wasn’t right.

But I’ve now secured my place on the GB team for the Games, which was announced a couple of weeks ago.

Then it was off to Manchester for the Paralympic World Cup where I broke my own world record in the SM6 200m individual medley.

To break the record on the back of hard training was great - It was about a second off the old mark which surprised me. I thought if I could get close to the mark I would have been chuffed but to break it by so much is amazing.

You don’t want to have all your best swims in May but at the same time I want my rivals to see that I am training well and racing well.

There is still definitely a lot of work to do and I would like to take another second off the record coming to Beijing.

With Nyree Lewis, who was second in Manchester and pushed me hard all the way, and the "pocket rocket" Eleanor Simmonds also improving fast, it would be nice to get a British clean sweep in the event in Beijing.

My parents and my fiancé Rik’s parents were in Manchester to see me break the record. My dad and my brother have got loud voices so I’m surprised everyone didn’t hear them cheering me on from the stands!

I was quite nervous when I was walking out for the race. My dad says if you are not nervous you won’t do well but I got to about the seventh lane and I was so terrified I wanted to cry.

I had been fine in the call-up room but once we got out to the lanes I wanted to sit down and cry or just sit down in protest, but that wouldn’t have been a good idea – not with the BBC cameras there.

But once I started I was fine. I thought I was swimming well - the first 50m felt good and although I died down a bit on the backstroke, I brought it back on the breaststroke and then the freestyle and when I saw the scoreboard I was absolutely delighted.

I’m now in Germany for an orientation camp with the rest of the GB Paralympic swimming squad and also to take part in the German Open.

We don’t get together as a big squad often so it will be good. Every time I’ve been away at major competition it’s always a different team but there is always a good atmosphere within the squad

This week I’m doing the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle. I’m not doing the medley because it is in the same session as the 100 free. This is our last international competition and the Canadian and Spanish swimmers are coming so I want to race well.

I’ve get a week off after Germany and I’m really looking forward to having a break because I haven’t had a rest all year yet.

I’m planning to go to see my friends in Colchester – I haven’t been down there since Christmas and I miss them so it’s going to be good to catch up with them before I get back into hard training.

Until next time.

Natalie Jones was speaking to Elizabeth Hudson