PORTLAND’S Jay Lelliott says he is highly motivated and itching to get back to full training after an extraordinary few weeks as an international swimmer.

The 19-year-old former Tornado of South Dorset freestyler is targeting two world championships over the next 12 months but also has one eye on the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Speaking at a welcome home party at the New Inn, the European bronze medallist and Commonwealth Games finalist said: “I feel so motivated – incredibly motivated.

“I have to let my body recover so I am taking 10 days off. But I am itching to get back to training and then I am going to hit my body so hard.

“The Olympics is what every swimmer ultimately thinks about but I am thinking one step at a time. It would be nice to make a mark on the world stage next year.

“I am hoping for selection to the World Short Course Championships in Doha in December and I’ll be aiming to qualify for the long-course World Champion-ships in Russia next summer.”

As he posed for photographs with scores of well-wishers, Lelliott talked for the first time about the moment he won his surprise bronze medal in the 400m freestyle in Berlin – the first of a record 24 British medals at the European Championships.

“I played the heat of the 400 so wrongly,” he said. “I worked my legs too hard. But six people from my heat qualified for the final and then my coach kept saying, ‘light legs, light legs’.

“I tried to do that in the final but the bronze medal was a huge surprise. When I looked at the scoreboard, I said to myself, ‘come on, you’ve finally done it’.

“It’s so hard to sum up how I felt in that moment. Standing on the podium was surreal and the reception I got from the British team when I got back to them was really good.

“I enjoyed it more than the Commonwealth Games.

“I didn’t really know the other swimmers then but I’ve got to know them now.”

Lelliott described the past few months as “incredible” and added: “I couldn’t have had it much better. A few months ago, I didn’t expect even to be in the Common-wealth Games or European Championships.

“My coach at Bath said there was an outside chance of making the Commonwealths and that was the first time I thought it might be possible.”

Lelliott’s meteoric rise from an unknown to the world’s top 20 in two events comes just 12 months after he failed to win a medal at the National Youth Championships.

“Last year’s disappointments made me more determined to be a better swimmer in the future,” he said.

“But if anyone had told me a few months ago that I’d be in a Commonwealth final and win a medal at the Europeans I’d have told them they were delusional.”

Lelliott’s improvement has been spectacular.

As GB head coach Bill Furniss pointed out in his post-championships press briefing in Berlin, Lelliott’s PBs for the 1500m and 400m freestyle a year ago were 16 minutes and four minutes.

Twelve months on, he is now the fifth fastest British 1500m freestyler of all-time with a PB from Berlin of 14:58.74, and the eighth fastest over 400m with 3:47.50.

He has also massively exceeded his target times for 2014, which were 15:35.00 for 1500m, 3:54.00 for 400m and 2:01.00 for 200m butterfly.

He went 1:58.66 to win gold in the 200m fly at last month’s National Youth Championships, his first national medal, which also ranks him fifth in Britain.

“My coach reckons I could be a 200m fly swimmer – we are still looking at what we are going to target in terms of events,” he said.