Karen Pickering has fired a parting shot at British swimming supremo Bill Sweetenham after quitting the sport she graced for 20 years.

Pickering brought the curtain down on her glittering career last week when she decided she could not put up with the Great Britain performance director's demands any longer.

The 33-year-old from Hove had wanted to hang up her goggles after defending her Commonwealth 200m freestyle title in Melbourne in March but brought forward her retirement due to Sweetenham's tough regime. Pickering, taught to swim by mother Deedee who now coaches at the Shiverers club in Hove, said: "I will continue to swim for my club but I have had enough of the national team side of things because it is not as enjoyable as it was in the past.

"If you are up at 5am every morning training then you have got to enjoy what you are doing but the national set-up had become a real battle for me.

"I had toyed with the idea of doing the Commonwealth Games next year but because I was not getting the enjoyment out if it I decided it was time to walk away.

"At my age I cannot do the same sort of training as someone 15 years younger than me but I was expected to do the same as everyone else.

"My coach knows what I need to do better than anyone else but that didn't seem to matter. There was no flexibility at all. Everyone was treated like children and you cannot run a team like that.

"I'm not bitter, though, because I've had a great career and it has lasted longer than I ever thought it would. When I started out I thought I would only last about five years at the top so to make it to 20 is pretty good going."

Sweetenham was hailed as the saviour of British swimming when he took over as performance director five years ago following a dismal display in the Olympic Games where the national team failed to win a single medal.

The no-nonsense Australian immediately imposed a draconian training regime, introducing 6am swims, upping the weekly mileage to 60,000m, banning massages, body-suits and body-shaving and threatening to kick out anyone who fails to make his standards.

The move yielded instant results as Britain returned with a best-ever haul of two golds, three silver and three bronze from the World Championships in 2003.

But things have turned sour since with a string of top names quitting the sport and Britain only managing three bronze medals at the recent World Championships in Montreal.

Now Pickering, who is Britain's most successful female swimmer of all-time with eight World Championship, 14 European Championship and 13 Commonwealth Games medals, has joined them.

Pickering, who battled back from breaking her back in a car accident in 1996, added: "The director of performance ultimately has to take responsibility for the state of swimming in this country.

"He initially put some really great things in place and created opportunities that weren't there before but clearly something is not working now and needs to change.

"Thirteen of the British Olympic team retired after Athens and you have got to ask the question why? We are not keeping the senior swimmers in the sport because they are being treated like children.

"The current regime is very rigid and does not take into account that the swimmers are all different. You are told what to do, when to do it and where to do it and I just don't want to be ordered around anymore.

"I still believe this country can be successful again because there are some fantastic swimmers coming through the junior ranks but it is just a case of not driving them away from the sport."