She's just treated herself to a new Mini Cooper - now Alys Thomas hopes to get the fast lane and a Commonwealth Games medal.

The Wales swimmer, born in Isleworth and raised near Twickenham's rugby stadium, reckons recent results proves she’s in a better place than her ninth in Delhi four years ago where she swam 2:14.84 for 200m fly.

At Canet in the south of France last month she notched a personal best 2:10.72. Asked to equate the improvement in distance, the 23-year-old Swansea University student guesses the old Alys would be somewhere around 15 metres behind the new one - the difference between ninth and a possible medal on a good day.

However, Thomas competes in one of swimming’s marathons: eight lengths of wearying fly that saw her mess up in the trials at Glasgow in April.

Like the race on the roads, it’s all about getting the pace right. Thomas didn’t, and finished 0.4seconds outside the qualifying time.

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“People think it’s all about going hell for leather,” she explained. “You hear the gun and swim for your life. But I’ve had to practice the race countless times that leaves me with a sprint finish, rather than fading.”

Thomas described it as a ‘cheeky PB’ in Canet but racing to second there was a massive boost to confidence, but not before the slog that brought its rewards.

The hard graft of training day in, day out together with nine two-hour, and two one-hour weight training sessions a week is what it takes.

You don’t get to haul your arms out of the water swimming fly for more than two minutes without the extra strength.

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“Did I choose the event, or did it choose me?” she said, “definitely the latter. I agree, it would have been great to be in the 50m free and done and dusted after 25-30 seconds. But this is what I’m good at."

Hopefully, the car dealer that sold her ‘Bumble’ - the  name she’s given to the new car in yellow and black pronounced her name right. For the record, Alys is pronounced Alice, but she’s had the lot in her time.

“Sometimes, they go straight to ‘Thomas’, because they don’t want to attempt the first name,” she adds.

As long as the world ‘medal’ accompanies it, whatever is said on the podium, Thomas won’t mind.

Get West London will cover all our west London Games competitors, including Thomas and 18 others in Glasgow.