PATTEN BACK HOME FOR BRITISH CHAMPS
World Championship medallist Cassie Patten will be in action
at the British Championships (50m) just one week after claiming
silver at her first major senior international.
The 20-year-old, who won silver over 10km at the World Championships
in Melbourne this week, will join more than 600 competitors
- including World Championship team-mate Keri-Anne Payne and
a delegation of over 40 swimmers from France - at the Manchester
Aquatics Centre for the six-day Championships which kick off
on Monday (26 March).
And with a new format to replicate conditions athletes can
expect at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, finals and semi finals
will be held in the morning (8am), with heats in the afternoon
(4pm).
As Britain's cream of the crop get action underway in the
pool in Melbourne at the FINA World Championships, the next
generation of athletes will be battling it out for the titles
in Manchester, with younger swimmers also hoping to achieve
qualification times for the European Youth Olympics and European
Junior Championships which take place this summer.
A 5km event has been added to the British Championship programme
to allow athletes to qualify for a variety of open water events,
including the European Junior Open Water Championships and
the Festival of Open Water Swimming.
British Swimming Director of World Class Programmes John
Atkinson believes that with the top ranked swimmers out the
country, the British Championships provide swimmers with an
opportunity to post fast times and gain podium experience.
"Swimmers at the British Championships have the chance
to stand up and make the most of the opportunities on offer
next week," he said. "The senior athletes have the
opportunity to post fast times to get onto world rankings
and qualify for the summer meets, while the juniors will be
looking to gain qualification times and increase their experience
at a major domestic Championship."
"With finals in the morning, the challenge for the swimmers
is to make sure they can recover sufficiently between evening
heats and morning finals and get up at an appropriate time
to race at their best.
"Previously, we've selected athletes from evening finals
and then expected them to repeat those times in morning heats
at major internationals. By holding the finals in the morning,
it shows athletes how fast they will have to swim in the heats
to make the finals at this summer's meets."
According to Atkinson, the inclusion of the French athletes
and the fact they can now reach the finals will be a real
boost for the British swimmers still in the country.
"The French were looking for a meet appropriate for
their swimmers that hadn't made it to the World Championships,"
he explained. "They chose to come to Manchester, which
will lift the standard of the event for our swimmers and make
the meet international without them having to leave the country."
Britain's top disability swimmers will also be testing the
water at the Championships, with multi-disability heats and
finals integrated into the programme. For the 18 athletes
competing at the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in
May, it will provide the ideal opportunity to gauge their
progress as they prepare for the biggest international disability
swim meet of the year.
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