Gregor Tait and James Goddard raced inside 1:57 in a grand duel in the 200m backstroke at British Olympic trials in Sheffield this morning, Tait the man with the edge and the Commonwealth record by the end. His 1:56.67 is 10th fastest all-time and took Tait, Commonwealth champion for Scotland in 2006, inside the 1:56.75 Commonwealth record established by Hayden Stoeckel (AUS) at Australian trials in Sydney last week.

British 200m medley champion yesterday, Goddard, fourth at Athens 2004 a fingernail away from the podium, was first at the 50m turn, but there was hardly anything between the two friends and rivals throughout the four-lap battle.

Goddard, coached by Ian Turner at Loughborough, surged out of the final turn but Tait, coached by Fred Vergnoux in Edinburgh, had a response and the 2004 Olympic finalists drove each other on below the 1:57 mark, Goddard stopping the clock at 1:56.82. European junior champion Marco Loughran, who has been based on the Gold Coast in Australia, is one to watch for the future. On 1:58.16 in heats and 1:58.34 for this in the final, he looked technically very good. He looked disappointed too. His time will come.

Tait's time is here and now. The 28-year-old said: 'I am quite impressed with that. I must be the oldest swimmer getting personal bests. Everybody was telling me that yesterday's (time) was a Commonwealth record [but it wasn't] so I had to make sure today's was. It is always good to have him (Goddard) there because he helps me and I help him.'

Kate Haywood, coached by Ben Titley at Loughborough, held off world 200m silver medallist Kirsty Balfour - pre-selected before trials - for the win in the 100m 1:07.84 to 1:08.05. The time was not quite at the 1:07.56 British record she had set in heats but it placed Haywood - one of the medley quartet that claimed the European title in the continent's first sub-4min effort in Eindhoven last month - on the plane to Beijing. She said: 'It was not quite as fast but it is still one of the fastest I've ever done.' On the burning issue of Leisel Jone's dominance, she added: 'We are getting there. She (Jones) is still pretty far ahead but people are going to catch her eventually.' Balfour, coached by Vergnoux, agreed: 'She hasn't got an Olympic gold yet so she'll be hungry for that but so will all the other girls and we're nopt going to make it easy for her.'

Her fellow Scot, Hannah Miley, coached by her father Patrick in Garioch, secured a place on the Olympic team with Keri-Anne Payne in the 200m medley. Just shy of the British record of 2:11.46 she set in heats yesterday, Miley was pleased with her 2:12.17. 'It's awesome to be on the team. We've worked really hard. The rest of the world moved along and we move with it. Now I've got a good stretch ahead of me to work on more improvement and I'm confident of having a great summer.' Payne, coached by Sean Kelly, faces an unusual programme in Beijing: 200m medley and 10km.

Asked if she might swim a different stroke down the rowing lake in China for the 10km, she laughed and said: 'I think I'll stick with freestyle'. She will race at qualification trials in May in Seville. Today she booked a place in Beijing four years after missing the trip to Athens by a fingernail in the 800m freestyle. She had hoped to get inside the 2:15 qualification standard at these trials but clocked 2:12.42 in heats and 2:12.43 in the final. The LZR Racer was at play, she believed. 'I have to credit the suit with this. It's amazing. I feel solid, streamlined and in control. Its very thin and light. I will never wear anything but this ever again.'

Fran Halsall, 18 next week and a member of the European relay team with Haywood in Eindhoven (on a 53.02 split), added the 50m freestyle to the 100m for Beijing with a 24.79 victory. 'It was a lot better than my 100,' said Halsall, coached by Colin Stripe at the City of Liverpool, 'I was looking to do a better technical race than last night and I think I did that. I was so unhappy after my 100 that it's only now that it's sinking in that I've made the Olympics.'

Commonwealth champion Ross Davenport, coached by Turner at Loughborough, claimed the 200m freestyle ahead of Robbie Renwick, coached by Aileen Adams in Aberdeen and a regular in Turner's group at Loughborough, in 1:47.66 to 1:48.29, locking the champion's training partner David Carry out of the solo. Carry, like the two men ahead of him, was looking forward to a relay that all 12 men who raced below 1:50 at trials here had been hoping to join. Renwick, 19, said: 'I came here looking for a place on the relay. To get the individual swim is just amazing.'

Davenport, who has been stuck in a rut for a while, now has a new lease of life. 'I'm over the moon,' he said. 'I have never won a 200 metres title at the British Championships. I'm the Commonwealth champion, fourth in the Olympics (in the relay) but never been British champion. So finally I've got that. It's a weight off my mind. I swam over 1:50 at championships last summer and I couldn't understand what was going wrong. I went home, took three weeks off, landscaped the garden the first week, took the dog for walks the second and then swam seven sessions the third week. Since then I have been building back for this moment. It's now time to get back into the pool and prepare for what comes next. We're all really excited about the relay's chances and we'll be working hard to make sure we give it the best shot we can. Britain's invested a lot in our relay and we want to deliver.'

The coach to that team, Ian Turner, will leave Britain after these trials for a new role in New Zealand. Britain will miss the mentor of Paul Palmer greatly.