Cumbrian badminton star Lauren Smith hopes to show how far she has come at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

Smith, 29, will represent Team GB in both the women's doubles and mixed doubles in her second Olympics.

And while she said it had been a ‘really strange’ preparation for the games, the Longtown ace is hopeful that her hard work will pay off on the biggest stage.

She said: “I’m really excited.

“I think it’s been a really strange build-up, a really strange two years ­– the most commonly used sentence in the world at the moment.

“I’m just really excited it’s going ahead, there was so much doubt and debate and a lot of work has had to go into it.

“My main emotion is excited, I’m also really eager to get going.

“I’ve put in a lot of hard training, a lot of hard work and I want to go and show myself at the actual event now.”

Smith believes that rest and recovery will be key as she faces multiple matches on some days.

“In Rio I was just playing women’s doubles, now I’m playing mixed, so from a badminton perspective that’s a big change,” she said.

“I’ve got two events this time which is a lot to handle.

“I’ve actually matured a lot as a person which sounds very strange but I do think I’ve learned a lot about myself as a player, what really makes me tick and I’ve got that experience that I didn’t have in Rio under my belt now.”

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