Totton teenager Alex Savage is hoping to make her major championship debut next month after being selected for the British team for the world championships in Barcelona.

The 17-year-old former Romsey and Totton swimmer is one of three Hampshire and Isle of Wight athletes in the 34-strong squad.

The other two, Totland Bay breaststroker Darren Mew and Portsmouth Northsea backstroker Katy Sexton, are both among Britain's major medal prospects in Spain.

For Savage, however, even the chance to swim will be a bonus.

She earned her place on the team by becoming British 100m butterfly champion at the main world championship trials at Sheffield in March, then followed up with second places in the 50 and 100m butterfly at the Scottish nationals in Glasgow last week.

But none of her times were inside the stiff qualifying standards set by British selectors.

Savage, a former pupil at St Anne's Convent School, Southampton, said: "They haven't told us yet what we are likely to be doing and there are no guarantees for me. So we'll have to wait and see.

"It will be amazing if I do get a swim but I am quite happy just to be on the team. It will be good experience.

"Selection also means attending a training camp in Loughborough for a week before the championships and two days after."

At the very least, Savage is likely to find herself as first reserve for the butterfly leg in the women's medley relay.

But coaches and team managers also have the option to include her as a second British swimmer in the individual butterfly events.

They could also stage a swim-off for the relay place between her and Olympic semi-finalist Georgina Lee, the only woman to beat her over 100m in Glasgow.

Savage's selection is the latest landmark in a career which has blossomed since joining Ferndown Otters in 2000.

She is one of several senior and junior internationals at the Dorset club, including Karen Legg, who won five medals at last year's Commonwealth Games and is also Barcelona-bound.

Savage, pictured above, made her junior international debut at 15, also in Spain, and became a senior international at the World Cup in Paris in January this year.

Meanwhile, the vastly more experienced Mew, who trains at Bath University's national performance centre, gets his first real chance to put Commonwealth Games disappointment behind him. He went to Manchester hoping for one or even two golds but had to settle for a bronze as the third Englishmen in the host country's medal monopoly in the 50m breaststroke.

Sexton, 21, was a Commonwealth champion at 16 but also had to settle for bronze in an English medal hat-trick in the 200m backstroke in Manchester after a shoulder injury wrecked her preparations.

But she beat Commonwealth double champion Sarah Price over 100 and 200m at the trials and broke the Commonwealth records.