Lizzie Simmonds keeps her cool prior to the heat of Delhi

Teenage swimming star Lizzie Simmonds faces a red-hot year which is likely to have reached boiling point by the time she swims in the sweltering temperatures of Delhi, in October, at the Commonwealth Games.

For someone so young, the heat in the pressure cooker atmosphere could prove to be too much.

However, such is Simmonds' attitude that the ice-cool 19-year-old is taking everything in her stride, despite adding more spice than is found in a Lamb Balti to the British female swimming scene recently.

After the European Championships in August, where Simmonds is expected to excel, the former Lincoln Vulcan will pit her wits against the best Australia, Canada and her compatriots have to offer in the 35 degree heat of India.

And she will go there full of confidence and energy after booking an automatic spot for the 100m and 200m backstroke races with two sizzling performances at the British Gas Swimming Championships in Sheffield earlier this month

Simmonds swam the races of her life to hold off the challenge of world champion and record-holder Gemma Spofforth in the 100m backstroke and then left her for dead in her favoured 200m.

"I am just living for the moment," said Simmonds, who set a new personal best of 59.43 seconds in the 100m, before winning the 200m in a time of 2:06.79 minutes, over two seconds ahead of Spofforth and just 13 one hundredths of a second outside the Commonwealth Games record.

"It's too early to call what is going to happen at future championships.

"I just want to continue enjoying what I am doing.

"If you start things too seriously, you can get caught up in it all, becoming nervous and end up not sticking to your race plan."

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