Ben Proud intends to take a few days off over Christmas but he will head straight back into the pool full of confidence afterwards following his record-breaking performances at the ASA National Swimming Championships in Sheffield.

Proud dipped under 46 seconds on his leg of the men's 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday with a time of 45.97, the first time he has done so over that distance, having already set a record in the event earlier at the meet.

The 21-year-old also broke the British 50m butterfly record by clocking 22.39, having already taken Mark Foster's 14-year-old short-course 50m freestyle British record on the opening day of the meet.

It was one of a number of impressive performances by Britain's swimmers at the competition as the season starts to pick up pace ahead of next year’s Olympics in Rio.

And Proud admitted he could not be happier with his current form.

"I am totally surprised with that," he said. "I know that the top world rankings are at 46.0 right now so I am really pleased to be in the 45s. After that race, I had absolutely nothing left but that's the nature of the 100m freestyle.

"I'm also pretty pleased with my 50m fly British record. I was actually shocked, I thought I'd maybe dip under 23 so to get a 22.3 was a big surprise.

"I love the 50m fly, it's why I got into the sport, but it's not as relevant right now with the [Olympic] trials in three months.

"I'm going to take a few days off for Christmas and then I'll get back into it. I've got three months until trials and I am really looking forward to this next chunk of work."

Sportsbeat 2015