COMMONWEALTH CHAMPS RETURN TO ACTION
A host of Britain's Commonwealth medallists will be in action
for the first time since Melbourne when they compete at the
British Swimming Championships in Sheffield next week.
The meet, which doubles as the European Championship Trials,
welcomes athletes from the home nations, including Commonwealth
gold medallists David Carry, Ross Davenport (both Loughborough
University), Matt Clay (Swansea), David Davies and Gregor
Tait (both city of Cardiff).
With a number of the Commonwealth squad members already posting
consideration times for the European Champs, others will be
hoping to join them next week and book their place on what
is set to be one of the largest British squads to compete
at this event after entry was increased to four swimmers per
nation.
Commonwealth Champion Davenport will be looking to add another
Championship title when he competes in Sheffield.
"My main aim for next week is to win one of my events,
as I've never ever won a British Championships," he admitted.
"I've already posted a qualification time in the 200m
Freestyle, but I'll be aiming to add the 100m next week. My
training's been going well, although it's different after
the highs of Australia and I've had to refocus and set myself
new aims.
"Sheffield is going to be tough for those of us returning
from the Commonwealths and it will be interesting to see how
we do. We were all on such good form in Melbourne and we'll
be hoping we can carry that on into next week."
Britain's top disability athletes will also be on show in
Sheffield, with the programme extended to cover the full six
days of competition. Commonwealth medallists Matthew Walker
(Marple) and David Roberts (Swansea) head the line-up in the
pool and will be using the event as good race practice ahead
of the World Championships in December.
Next week's meet also acts as a qualification event for the
European Junior Championships in Mallorca in July. Britain's
top male and female swimmers aged 17-18 and 15-16 years will
be hoping to post times to make the squad and compete in Spain
at what is considered to be a strong springboard to senior
competition.
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