GLASGOW (AFP) - Olympic 400 metres champion Laure Manaudou on Sunday bowed out of the Scottish swimming championships with a comfortable victory in the 1500m freestyle.

Manaudou, seen as one of France's top gold medal hopes in Beijing, clocked 16min 54.98sec, far from her personal best of 16:03.01 recorded two years ago.

It is the first time the triple world champion has competed in the distance since March 2007, and she will be encouraged by the result.

At the same Scottish meet on Friday, the 21-year-old came second in the 200m backstroke behind local star Hannah Miley.

Manaudou, who will compete over that distance at the Beijing Games, was disappointed with her swim, saying: "Even if the standard is weaker here it's not easy to accept doing bad times in races like this."