Kate Haywood pleased by World Championship call-up

Haywood missed the 2009 World Championships through injury

Lincoln's Kate Haywood says she is pleased by her unexpected call-up to the Great Britain squad for the World Swimming championships in Shanghai.

Haywood, now based in Australia, failed to qualify for the championships at the National trials but was given a place in the 50m breaststroke.

"My main aim is 2012 but I'm hoping we can go to the Worlds and do well there," she told BBC Lincolnshire.

"It's great to be on the team and I'm really happy to be going."

Haywood, who missed the 2009 World Championships with a hip injury, returned to Britain from Australia in March for the National Championships and World Championship trials.

But after failing to reach the qualifying standard she wrote off her chances of going to Shanghai in July and decided against attempting to qualify for a second time in the British Championships in Sheffield in June.

"I was ill and jet-lagged and didn't perform well, and I decided not to return [for Sheffield] and started training for next year," she said.

"But I got a phone call saying they needed a back-up for the relay team, because I'm still the fastest in the breaststroke even though I didn't do well in the trials and I'm going to swim in the 50 metres and hopefully get a spot on the relay team as well."