FIVE-time European and Commonwealth medalist Fran Halsall is adamant Amy Smith is the key cog in delivering Great Britain a first-ever World Championships 4x100-metre freestyle relay gold in Shanghai this month.

The 23-year-old has a proven track record in the sprint freestyle relay, helping England and Halsall to Commonwealth silver in Melbourne in 2006 before helping repeat the trick in India last year.

In between, Kidderminster’s Smith helped Britain to seventh at the last World Championships, in Rome in 2009, and impressive European silver in Budapest this time last year as the lead-off swimmer.

Smith was confirmed as part of Britain’s 40-strong World Championship team for China last month and Halsall believes her presence will be crucial if a maiden world 4x100m freestyle relay medal is to be forthcoming.

“Amy led off the relay team at the Europeans and we ended up getting a silver medal,” said Halsall, who won world silver in 2009 and one Commonwealth and two European golds last year.

“She swam a fantastic split and the time was fantastic too, so if she keeps improving on that then our relay team is going to be fantastic and certainly one to watch at next year’s Olympics.

“It’s amazing when it comes down to it how seriously we take the relay and, because we feel we’ve got a really strong team at the moment, we feel we’re in with a genuine chance whenever we get in the water.

“Amy’s become a really important part of the team and, at the moment, we’ve got a squad that’s all on the same page and all of us are enjoying our swimming, but we all really want to win as well.”

Smith could also swim individually in Shanghai in the 100m freestyle, a further step in the right direction after competing in the discipline at the European and Commonwealth Games last year.

While Halsall is quick to sing her praises as part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team, she is refusing to discount Smith making rapid progress as an individual as well.

She added: “Amy has been doing really well, she’s qualified for World Championships now in the 100m freestyle so she’s got that to swim and she’s forever gaining experience.”

“Before the Europeans last year I don’t think she had even swam a big international individual race. She’s still very new to individual races but she’s doing very well.”

Fran Halsall is delighted to be supporting Nestle’s Get Set Go Free Campaign that allows families to try lots of different sports this summer for free. Visit getsetgofree.com