Britain is sending a strong team to the European Championships in Budapest in August despite earlier fears that making a priority of the Commonwealth Games this year would weaken the continental campaign.
At the helm of the British Gas squad are double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and world backstroke champions Liam Tancock and Gemma Spofforth, the latter having recently changed her plans to included Budapest in her 2010 mission, as reported here yesterday.
Those three big hitters are joined on the roster by several other medal hopes, including Elizabeth Simmonds on backstroke, Fran Halsall on sprint freestyle, Jazmin Carlin and Joanne Jackson (health allowing as she recovers from a winter of asthma-related setbacks), Jemma Lowe and Ellen Gandy on 'fly and Hannah Miley on medley. The women's relays will also present a challenge for rivals.
The 35-strong Britain team may be strong but a federation release made clear that the Commonwealth Games in October remain the "main performance goal of 2010".
Britain Head Coach Dennis Pursley said: "The European Championships will be a high priority competition for British Swimming and are very important to our goals for the year. The approach won't be the same as it would be for a peak performance competition as we will continue training throughout with our focus on the Commonwealth Games.
"For Britain, the European Championships offer a vital opportunity to really work on our competition skills, our focus and mental toughness, and race against some of the best in the world even though we may not been in the same state of preparation that they will be."
Even so, he has high expectations, noting: "Budapest will possibly be even stronger in terms of competition in a lot of events than the Commonwealth Games. We will be sending most of our best swimmers to Hungary where we want to be swimming tough and do the best we possibly can under the circumstances."
The national team is currently in Mallorca on warm-weather camp. "The camp in Mallorca has been great preparation for me and the squad," said Adlington. "I am training long course (50m) everyday where as at home I train short course (25m) and do one long course session. These opportunities help us to develop the vital team dynamic you need when facing a European or Commonwealth challenge and personally I am feeling really good in the pool because I've completed a big block of preparation. Two weeks of long course training makes a massive difference.
"The main focus this year is the Commonwealth Games so the Europeans is going to be tough especially as there are so many great swimmers in my events who will be fully rested. I won't really taper down my training to prepare, I will probably cut back the week before and just do lighter work as my full taper will be ahead of the Commonwealth Games."
Team GB:
- Women
- Rebecca Adlington - Nova Centurion
- Achieng Ajulu-Bushell - Plymouth Leander
- Jazmin Carlin - British Gas ITC Swansea
- Lucy Ellis - British Gas ITC Stirling
- Ellen Gandy - Beckenham
- Fran Halsall - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Kate Haywood - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Joanne Jackson - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Jemma Lowe - Stockton ASC
- Sasha Matthews - Nova Centurion
- Hannah Miley - Garioch
- Elizabeth Simmonds - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Amy Smith - Loughborough University
- Gemma Spofforth - Portsmouth Northsea
- Jessica Sylvester - Nova Centurion
- Stacey Tadd - University of Bath
- Aimee Willmott - Middlesbrough
- Katherine Wyld - Nova Centurion
- Men
- Tom Allen - British Gas ITC Swansea
- Robert Bale - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Adam Brown - Hatfield
- Simon Burnett - Windsor
- David Carry - British Gas ITC Stockport
- Ross Davenport - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- James Goddard - British Gas ITC Stockport
- Kris Gilchrist - Edinburgh University
- Antony James - Plymouth Leander
- Michael Jamieson - Edinburgh University
- Roberto Pavoni - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Robbie Renwick - City of Glasgow
- Michael Rock - British Gas ITC Stockport
- Joe Roebuck - Loughborough University
- Liam Tancock - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Grant Turner - British Gas ITC Loughborough
- Richard Webb - University of Bath
