The 18-year-old travelled with the elite squad of Bath University, where she has been studying since September, to compete in three events.
Since joining Bath the former Beaulieu student has been training up to 20 hours a week in the pool with an additional six hours training to complement her studies that she is thoroughly enjoying it.
The meet in St Dizier was used to bring some speed into her training.
In the 400m freestyle the 18-year-old lowered her personal best time by seven seconds after recording 4.25.10 min to finish 14th – a time that was just four seconds shy of the Island short course record.
In her second event, the 200m breast-stroke, Speller overhauled a JSC record set by Alison Christie in 1990 as she swam 2.40.41 min to finish sixth with a two second PB.
The 400m individual medley is Speller’s strongest, but lining up in her heat was the Ukraine’s Yana Klochkova, the current short course world record holder.
‘I’m on the blocks and all I’m thinking is how crazy this is that the world record holder and Olympic champion is two lanes down and I could hear you saying “dream it, then do it” but I just wanted to watch as she’s so good,’ said Speller to JSC coach Bill Davies after the event.
Getting within one second of her PB Speller finished sixth with a time of 5.00.74 min.
The Island Games medallist now goes straight back to training and plans to compete in early December at the Bath Open before heading to the Spanish Nationals towards the end of the year.
