BRITISH SWIMMERS ARE TESTAMENT TO NEW ERA
The success of the home nations in Melbourne has highlighted
a generation of young swimmers who have come of age under
the Sweetenham regime.
Overall, swimmers from England, Scotland and Wales amassed
an impressive 15 gold, 14 silver and nine bronze medals and
are testament to the programmes introduced by Sweetenham since
his arrival as National Performance Director in 2000.
With 14 of the individual medallists on the British World
Class Performance programme and receiving funding through
UK Sport, the systems put in place over the last five years
are beginning to come to fruition.
In 2002, the home nations won just 11 gold medals compared
to Australia's 25, with the Australian men taking 15, the
women 10, and the British men and women picking up three and
eight golds respectively. Four years on and the British teams
are just two gold medals behind the hosts in the able-bodied
events, with the British men dominating in the pool with a
dozen golds - a stark contrast to Australia's one.
And the improvement in times is clear from the women's 200m
Freestyle where three British athletes swam below the previous
Games record set by Karen Pickering in 2002. The future of
the men's 4x200m is also bright with four Brits (Ross Davenport,
Simon Burnett, David Carry and Andrew Hunter) reaching the
200m individual finals.
In Melbourne Mel Marshall, who is coached by British Swimming's
Ben Titley, became the most decorated English female athlete
at a single Games, with a personal haul of six medals in as
many days.
All seven of Titley's and GB Head Coach Ian Turner's trio
of Commonwealth athletes reached the podium, in individual
or relay events, which underlines the strength of the swimmers
coming out of the Loughborough programme.
Double gold medallist David Carry, who equalled the individual
gold medal count of Scottish swimming hero David Wilkie this
week, is reaping the benefits of a two-year stint in Australia
at British Swimming's offshore centre - The Southport School
(TSS).
An initiative set up by Sweetenham for Britain's talented
young swimmers to combine training with education, TSS in
an environment that encourages academic and sporting excellence.
Carry is the first of its recruits to medal on the international
stage.
Welsh swimmer David Davies, who collected gold in the 1500m
Freestyle and bronze over 400m, is on the British programme
in Cardiff and has received specialised support from sport
scientist Bob Treffene, who has been working with the British
team for the last few years.
Wales is also home to another Bill Sweetenham initiative
- the British Swimming sprint programme. Based at Swansea
and led by 1998 World 50m Freestyle Champion Bill Pilczuk,
the programme has been instrumental in enabling Clay to qualify
for his first major international event and putting him on
the podium as 50m Backstroke Champion.
Multi-medallist Simon Burnett, who is based in the United
States, is also a recipient of support from the central British
Swimming programme, and competes for the team as often as
possible.
National Performance Director Bill Sweetenham is quick to
praise the British Swimmers and coaches:
"The home countries have to be delighted with their
performance," he said. "They should be encouraged
and motivated for the future after such a promising week in
the water.
"These are a great set of results that will serve to
motivate our coaches and athletes to take the next step forward
so we can convert this to the world stage."
Credit also lies with the individuals that coached these
medallists as juniors, including Northampton's Mark Perry,
who trained Melanie Marshall and Caitlin McClatchey and Eileen
Adams (City of Aberdeen), current coach of Robbie Renwick
and former coach to David Carry.
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