Like most of the swimmers who competed at the Beijing Olympics, I am back into the hard work, training rigorously at Loughborough.

As you may or may not know, I am also a keen Derby County supporter - and it has been a mixed campaign so far after our dismal relegation from the Premier League last season, when we won only once in the entire league programme. We are in mid-table in the Championship and a decent run could certainly get us into the play-off places, though an automatic promotion spot looks pretty unlikely at this stage, even with more than half of the season to go. Wolves and Birmingham are both going great guns, while Reading are in spitting distance of the top two if one of them slips up.

But it’s in the Carling Cup that it has been great to be a Derby fan! We beat Stoke City in the quarter-final to set up a two-legged semi-final in January against none other than Manchester United. It will be our first semi-final appearance in a major competition since we got to the last four of the FA Cup in 1976 - eight years before I was born! And guess who we played in that? Yes, Man United! We lost that one, so we’ll be hoping for a bit of revenge - even if it will be the small matter of 33 years later….

I hope you have a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

All the best

Ross