Swimming: Harris celebrating his 'great achievement'

Martin Harris looks set to compete in his third Commonwealth Games after he was one of 47 swimmers nominated for the England team yesterday. It marks a remarkable comeback for the former British record holder who quit the sport two years ago after failing to qualify for the Sydney Olympics.

The 33-year-old from Tower Hamlets won gold in the 100 metres backstroke at the 1994 Games in Victoria, Canada, and took a relay silver medal in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

Harris has been training in New Zealand with the former world short-course record holder Zöe Baker, and made a surprise return to top-level swimming at the British Championships in Manchester last week, where he shared the 50m backstroke gold medal with Adam Ruckwood.

"I just wanted to see how far I could get," Harris said. "It has been a great achievement to make the Commonwealth Games, especially at 33 – I have only been training four times a week. It is funny to come back to the sport now, but it has done me the world of good mentally."

But there is no place on the nominations list for the British record holder Nicola Jackson, gold medal winner in the 4x200 freestyle relay at the Fukuoka World Championships last year. She failed to make the final of the 200m freestyle on the opening day of last week's Championships, and could only manage fourth place in the 100m butterfly. The national performance director, Bill Sweetenham, decreed that only performances at the British Championships would count for selection, so 18-year-old Jackson, now at the University of Bath, will play no part in the Games.

The 47 nominated swimmers will be put forward to the Commonwealth Games Council for England after the conclusion of the selection process for diving in May, when the full aquatics team will be announced.