Stephanie Rice will defend her Olympic 400-metre individual medley title in London after setting the year’s second-best time to win the event at the Australian selection trials in Adelaide yesterday.

The triple Beijing Olympic gold medallist won in four minutes 33.45 seconds, more than four seconds ahead of Blair Evans (4:37.80), who is also off to the London Olympics.

Rice, 23, went into the national championships under pressure to earn a place in Australia’s Olympic team after surgery on her right shoulder last December.

But she sent out an emphatic message that she will be competitive in London after swimming just 0.78secs outside Briton Hannah Miley’s 2012 best time of 4:32.67.

“It’s the biggest relief and the biggest weight lifted off my shoulders,” Rice said.

Four more spots in the Australian team were filled on the opening night of the trials with David McKeon (3:46.36) beating Ryan Napoleon (3:47.93) in the 400m freestyle.

Thomas Fraser-Holmes swam the year’s best time of 4:11.81 to set an Australian record in winning the 400m individual medley to clinch Olympic selection along with runner-up Daniel Tranter (4:16.38).

Defending Olympic champion Libby Trickett was sixth fastest into the 100m butterfly final with 59.65secs behind Jessicah Schipper (58.26).

Only 1.44 seconds separated the top seven with only two from today’s final going on to compete in London.