DAVIES RETURNS FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIAL
Olympic, World and Commonwealth medallist David Davies is
ready to put the past eight months behind him when he competes
for the first time since suffering a foot infection and subsequent
surgery.
The City of Cardiff swimmer will compete at the Dutch National
Championships in Eindhoven on 1st December where he aims to
use his first race back from injury to qualify for the British
squad heading for the World Championships in Melbourne next
year.
The 21-year-old distance freestyler, who first suffered the
infection at the Commonwealth Games and underwent surgery
on his foot at the beginning of May, aims to achieve the 1500m
Freestyle qualifying time of 15:12.14 in Eindhoven.
Davies will draw on a solid four-month foundation of training
he has been able to put together, without distraction, since
returning to the pool in July.
"I've just come back from a very good camp in Australia
where I spent more than six weeks putting together a big block
of training with the likes of Dave Carry and Ross Davenport,"
said Davies.
"I'm just really looking forward to competing now. It's
been so long since I last raced in Melbourne and I feel up
for it."
If Davies achieves the time in Eindhoven he will join the
British squad bound for the European Championships (25m) in
Helsinki which get underway on 7th December.
"We have a back up plan as well but I'm aiming to qualify
in Holland. If it doesn't go well I'll return to the UK before
competing at a Welsh ASA meet in Swansea on 16th and 17th
December," said Davies.
However, Davies goes to Eindhoven with confidence and without
any lingering problems as a result of the surgery.
"I'm back to normal now. It took me a while to get into
the water but since July I've been training hard to try to
reach the same fitness levels I had before," explained
Davies.
"Australia gave me the opportunity to get some really
consistent work done and I'm looking forward to racing again.
Because of the work I've done I feel confident I'll be able
to achieve the time, put it all behind me and look to the
World Championships."
M Britain's Caitlin McClatchey (Loughborough University)
has withdrawn from the European Championships in Helsinki
due to education commitments. McClatchey decided to withdraw
to concentrate on her studies at an important time within
her course.
"Caitlin's had a long training camp in Australia and
there's a busy year ahead so she felt she needed to turn her
attention to her coursework at this time," explained
coach Ben Titley.
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