She’d made no secret of the fact that it was a huge, huge ask. But illness in the build-up prevented reigning 70.3 World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay from having any chance of getting close to the qualifying mark in the Commonwealth Games trials for the 1,500 metres freestyle swimming.

The Briton, who won the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in 2023, is middle and long-distance triathlon’s greatest swimmer and came into the sport from that discipline – and an imaginative early-season target came about after she underwent surgery in January to remove a plantaris tendon.

That typically requires six weeks in a protective moon boot but while running was out of the question, she formulated a plan to focus as much as she could on her swimming.

And just four weeks after surgery she clocked 17:29.40 as she won the 1,500 metres freestyle in the Women’s 18 Years & Over Essex County Championships at the London Aquatics Centre.

Then three weeks later she was down to 17:08 which secured her a place at the Commonwealth Games trials for Team England as one of the country’s 10 quickest.

That took place on Wednesday night for her event, back at the London Aquatics Centre.

Her PB (from 10 years ago) for the distance was 16:35 and the Team England qualifying mark was 16:26:99 so it was a case of moon boot to moonshot – but it was always about more than that.

‘More than just chasing a time’

In the 10-woman final heat showdown it was Amelie Blocksidge who went ahead early and dominated, the 17-year-old City of Salford swimmer the only one to go under 16:27 as she registered 16:22:93 to win her fourth national title.

Charles-Barclay finished strongly to move from 10th to eighth in the final couple of lengths with a time of 17:03:73.

Given the injury background that was impressive enough, all the more so as illness in the build-up had thrown in another unwanted curve ball.

LCB explained more afterwards when writing on Instagram – and also underlined that in the bigger picture there have been lots of positives to take out of the project.

She said: “The last two months of getting back into my swimming roots have meant a lot more to me than just chasing a time.

“After plantaris tendon removal surgery, this has been a really difficult period. Swimming became my lifeline, giving me a way to still feel like a functioning athlete while recovering, even if the truth is that part of me was using it as a distraction from not being able to do my job as a professional triathlete.

“Still, things were going really well. I was making big progress in the pool and set myself the dream goal of getting back near my 1500m PB of 16:35, just 10 weeks post-surgery and after only two months of training.

“Then I got sick a week before trials.

‘Patience part of the process’

“I know from experience that illness always catches up with performance. The same thing happened before T100 Singapore last year after one of my best preparations, and I had a flat performance there too. But what that experience taught me is that the work still counts, even when the result on the day doesn’t show it. A lot of that fitness came out later in some of my best performances.

“So yes, last night’s 17:03.73 was disappointing, and not a true reflection of where I’m at or the work my team and I have put in.

“But sometimes that’s the lesson: the work you put in doesn’t always show up straight away. Sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes patience is part of the process.

“Even at the top level, progress takes time.”

And the good news is that Lucy is already adding in some run / walk sessions to her training schedule so hopefully it won’t be too long before we also see her back on a triathlon start line.