The first generation of swimmers wearing a revolutionary new suit that is designed to improve standards dramatically in the pool took the plunge at the British Championships, which is doubling as the Olympic trials, in Sheffield last night.

The black Lycra TechFit PowerWeb suit, produced by adidas, is ribbed with strategically placed “powerbands” made of thermoplastic urethane and is designed to compress the muscles and help to quicken blood flow. The bands skirt the hips, thighs, waist and knees and serve as a slingshot that helps to propel the swimmer from the blocks and off the wall at turns.

Adidas has also produced the first stroke-specific suit: breaststroke specialists complained that the powerbands on the standard version were in the wrong place for a movement that meets more resistance in water than the other three strokes.

Francesca Halsall, the 17-year-old who brought the Great Britain medley relay team home to victory at the European Championships nine days ago, looked set to be the first to do some damage in her PowerWeb. After watching her British record of 54.53sec fall to Caitlin McClatchey, who recorded 54.31 in the 100 metres freestyle heat that went before hers, Halsall raced at world-record pace for the first half of the two-lap race before easing back to finish in 54.88.

Halsall, who said that she feels a sense of pride in a suit that her feed-back helped to develop, welcomed the technology. “I love the fact that these suits are always evolving, so come 2012, when I’ll be at my peak, they will have evolved to a point where I can swim 51 seconds,” she said through laughter.

The world record was set at 52.88, the first sub-53 effort, by Libby Trickett, the Australian world champion, last week. That was one of 17 world records set in the Speedo LZR Racer suit since February 16.

However, the suits are not all. Racing in an old-style Speedo because her new one “didn’t fit”, Jemma Lowe marked her eighteenth birthday by wiping 2.25sec off the British record in the 200 metres butterfly heats. Her time of 2min 6.64 took Lowe from 57th to 9th on the all-time ranking list and to second in the world this year, ahead of Jessicah Schipper, the world champion and record-holder from Australia.

Finals in Sheffield are being held in the morning this week to reflect conditions at the Olympics in Beijing. David Carry, the Commonwealth 400 metres individual medley and freestyle champion, has prepared for the change by using a “body clock”, a morning alarm that uses light instead of sound. Replicating dawn, the intensity of light increases during the last 45 minutes of sleep. However, Halsall is not using the clock. “It’s all in the head,” she said. “Come the Olympic final, it’s an Olympic final and the adrenalin’s there. You have to be ready.”

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