Keep calm and Keri-anne

With her wedding in just a month's time, Keri-anne Payne should be busy fretting over dresses, cakes, and table plans.

But instead, the 24-year-old has been miles away from her Cinderella day, putting her body through a gruelling training schedule to prepare for today's 10k open water swim.

Instead of pampering, preening and preparing, she has shared rivers in China with dead animals as she prepares to claim a gold medal to add to Britain's tally in this year's Olympics.

Payne won silver in Beijing and subsequently claimed two world crowns to be cast as favourite for today's race in Hyde Park's Serpentine.

A keen Sudoku player, she has become a central member of Britain's swimming team.

She is engaged to fellow swimmer David Carry and the pair will tie the knot in Aberdeen next month, with good friend and team-mate Rebecca Adlington as one of the bridesmaids.

But despite the possibility of so many distractions, Payne has remained focused on her own quest for a gold medal.

Open water manager Mark Perry said: "She has always been focused on this race. She didn't race in the pool.

"Quite often she wasn't there for finals (in the pool), we were training.

"She watched a lot of it on TV.

"She supported her friends - and David."

Payne was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to British parents Pat and Jim, who registered her birth at the British Consulate.

She started swimming at the age of four, inspired by elder brother Mark - mother Pat previously told how Payne used to sit on the end of his board while he was kicking.

"A couple of times, she fell off and he wasn't always looking at what she was doing and so his coach decided to teach her to swim," she told the BBC.

At the age of eight, Payne was noticed by British Swimming's national performance director Bill Sweetenham after a chance meeting at a training camp in South Africa.

That prompted her family to return to the UK to live in Heywood, Greater Manchester, when she was 13.

Joining Stockport Metro, she went on to break the British junior 800m freestyle record in 2002.

But when her funding was cut after the 2006 Commonwealth Games, coach Sean Kelly suggested Payne try open water swimming, allowing her to access additional funding.

At the Beijing Olympics, Payne represented Great Britain in the 200m and 400m individual medley swimming events as well as the 10km open water event, winning a silver medal for Great Britain less than two years after she had taken up the event.

At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Payne won the 10km swim, and in 2011 in Shanghai, she reclaimed the World Championship in the 10km Open Water event.

She also became the first British athlete in any sport to qualify for the Olympics.

Payne put herself through a gruelling process of training to prepare for today's race.

And while some may think it is the last thing a bride-to-be needs, her fiance Carry said it was a welcome distraction.

The two-time Commonwealth champion told the BBC: "Keri-anne always needs a project before a big competition.

"Before Beijing and the World Championships, there were charity events in Stockport.

"Now, what better project to have than a wedding."

And it means that regardless of today's result, Payne is celebrating a brilliant year, ending it with a wedding ring, as well as an Olympic appearance.