Molly Renshaw 'in a much better place' ahead of Tokyo Olympics

Mansfield’s Renshaw, 25, who spent her formative years racing for Ripley Rascals, takes to the pool this weekend for what will be her second Olympic Games.

And after a successful World Championships just two months ago, she says she is hopeful of emulating her efforts in Rio 2016 where she reached the 200m breaststroke final.

She said: “I’m happier knowing that I’m in a better place now and it fills me with a lot of confidence going forward that I’ve had that experience of being at the Olympics and know what to expect from the Village environment.

"This year’s very different with the COVID aspect obviously but hopefully I can take things in my stride and focus on the swimming side of things.”

Renshaw goes into the Games off the back of two gold medals at the World Championships in Budapest in May, in the 200m breaststroke and 4x100m relay.

She added: “Budapest went really well. We didn’t really know how it would go as we’d been training so hard we were digging ourselves into a bit of a hole so it could have gone either way, but luckily it went really well.

"I’m glad I backed my performances from trials – I’d dropped quite a bit of time in the 200 and there’s always a worry whether you’re going to get there again so that gave me confidence and I dropped time in the 100 too so it was good to be back racing again in that international environment and against international athletes again.”