DOUBLE Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington believes best friend Jo Jackson has the mental toughness to banish her injury and illness woes and make 2010 a year to remember, not one to forget.

The pair have endured differing fortunes this year, with Adlington scooping a hat-trick of medals at the British Championships and swimming the fastest 800m freestyle time in the world this year.

By comparison, Jackson has swam competitively just twice, scooping British 200m freestyle bronze but suffering flu, sinus trouble and reoccurring asthma attacks, which in turn have caused rib damage.

Despite that, Jackson will pit her wits against Adlington at the European Championships in August, a year after beating her to 400m and 800m freestyle silver at the Rome World Championships.

Adlington felt the affects of claiming just 400m freestyle bronze in Italy while Jackson’s woes have taken their toll on her, but the Mansfield swimmer insists she will come out all guns blazing.

“Jo and I are really good friends and it is great that she is back racing and gets the chance to go to the Europeans,” said Adlington.

“We have always supported each other, we speak all the time and we bother to help each out.

“Jo was there for me last year and helped a lot when I was finding things a bit hard. I have given her my support this year as she hasn’t had the greatest of times, with injury and illness. People on the outside are baffled that we aren’t major rivals. We both want to be winning medals and hopefully we can be up there again this year, because despite her problems, Jo is a real fighter.”

Jackson and Adlington joined forces with Caitlin McClatchey and Jazmin Carlin to claim 4x200m freestyle relay bronze at the World Championships in Rome last year.

The pair will come together again at the European Championships and Adlington insists Jackson is now just as much a figurehead for the team as she is.

“I love coming together with Jo as part of the 4x200m freestyle relay team, that is always exciting,”

added Adlington.

“We have such a strong team and there is a lot of depth.

“We are hopeful that we can perform to our best this year.”

■ Rebecca Adlington likes to play Snap when she is not swimming and is a Stripe.

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