British swimmers were given a stark warning at the Water Cube today after celebrating a fourth-place finish in the medals table: look over your shoulders and watch for the little sharks snapping at your heels, hungry for a ticket to London 2012.

As he launched a campaign to find a headline sponsor for the national swimming team, Michael Scott, the performance director, said: “My message to this team is that it won't be a question of simply rolling up to 2012. It will be seriously difficult to make it to a home Games.” He rattled out a set of heartening statistics topped by a British youth team who led the medals table at the European Junior Championships in Belgrade last month.

Asked to sum up Britain's effort in Beijing, Scott said: “One positive step forward, but one gigantic leap required for London 2012. We have a lot to do for us to be at the level that the public will expect in 2012.”

Supporting the two gold medals for Rebecca Adlington in the 400metres and 800metres freestyle and Joanne Jackson's bronze behind her team-mate in the 400metres, the national team celebrated one world, six European and three Commonwealth standards at the helm of 25 British records generated.

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Gemma Spofforth added to that tally in the final session of racing by setting two European records in one race: her 59.05sec backstroke set a new standard that would have won her bronze in the individual event instead of fourth, while the medley relay as a whole wiped two seconds off the continental 4x100metres standard, with 3min 57.50sec. That left Spofforth, Kate Haywood, Jemma Lowe and Francesca Halsall nursing another fourth-place finish. “I had a good swim, but we are all very disappointed. Fourth again is not where we wanted to be,” Spofforth said. Right attitude, Scott noted. “We have to find the alchemy to convert those into podium places, but we'll take some positives,” he said.

The age of the performance-enhancing bodysuit skews the significance of records set in Beijing, but the 21 places in finals for British swimmers is more than three times the average number achieved at the past five Games.

Britain's fourth-place finish marked a rise from eighteenth place in 2004 and no medals at all in 2000. When London hosted the 1908 Games, Britain finished top of the medals table in a far less competitive world. In 2008, 12 nations claimed at least one gold and 21 countries paid at least one visit to the podium.

However, the swimming in Beijing is not over yet: the 10km marathon swims are on Wednesday for women and Thursday for men. David Davies, the 2004 bronze medal-winner, who finished sixth in the 1,500metres final yesterday, and Cassie Patten, eighth in the 800metres final - they are both World Championships silver medal-winners - are now gunning for gold.

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