Motivation is growing in Laure Manaudou with each passing assault on her standards, the French Olympic champion has stated in an interview at the French Cup in Lyon.

On a day when she clocked 8:36.09 over 800m freestyle in the midst of heavy training, Manaudou told AFP that the more competition and the faster rivals raced, the more motivated she felt. 'Four years ago it was good enough to swim 4:05. Now it will be necessary to go 4 minutes.'

On the 4:02.20 of Katie Hoff (USA) in Missouri, Manaudou said: 'I'm not in a period of training where I could do the times she's just done, so I'm not giving it any thought.' Asked how had she felt when she saw the time, she replied: '7/100 is not alot. I felt a little, well, not sick but left thinking that girls are there doing 4:02. It just means I have to shift it a bit but at the same time its better for me to know [what's out there] now than later. I was surprised that it was Katie Hoff and not Kate Ziegler. There are a lot of women who have not reached their limit yet. There'll be surprises all year. But I hope to be producing some surprises myself!'

Every time that someone got close to her on the clock or did a good time in one of here events, she noted, it was 'like the end of the world', with articles galore covering every stroke. 'You could let it upset you but the fact is they were ready to race like that. I'm not right now. There are lots of strong women in world swimming. I'm not the only one.'

As for what it will take to win the Beijing 400m, she said: 'You can't tell. But for sure it will be necessary to race faster than 4:02 ... and in the morning. That'll be complicated. But first I have to make the final. And before that make the team. I'm not there yet.'

Her camp in the Seychelles had gone 'really well', Manaudou said. 'I trained like I trained at Canet [with Philippe Lucas], with the same intensity.' She was enjoying working with coach Lionel Horter, who built more recovery phases into her workload that Lucas had, she said. Her land work was different, which was helping her shoulder pain and she was also benefitting from working in a group.

Manaudou will race 400m freestyle in Lyon but the dates to watch for are April 20-27: the French Olympic trials in Dunkirk.