Danish date for Jamieson and McNally
SWIMMING Olympic 200 metres breaststroke silver medallist michael Jamieson and World championship bronze medallist Fran Halsall will spearhead a 12-strong Great Britain team at the European Short-course (25 metres) championships in Herning, Denmark in December.
Halsall, who claimed Britain’s only medal at the worlds in Barcelona in the summer with bronze in the 50m freestyle, and Jamieson, fifth after a restrictive shoulder injury, will be joined by the likes of former world individual medley medallist Hannah miley and Olympic 200m breaststroke finalist Andrew Willis, fourth in the event in Spain.
Jaz carlin, whose threepronged medal attack failed to materialise in Barcelona, is selected, as are craig mcNally and Adam peaty, both tipped for bright futures.
mcNally was one of a number of young British men who gave cause for optimism at the worlds, the Warrender swimmer finishing sixth in the 200m backstroke on his debut at a senior global championships.
Breaststroke 100m and 200m swimmer peaty is in events stacked with talent in Britain and he just failed to make the World championship squad earlier this year.
The team is made up of those who are earmarked to challenge in the near future and head coach Bill Furniss said: “This is a team which is focused on athletes that we feel can deliver medals either today or in the near future.
“it continues the strategy we have adopted of smaller, more focused teams and this will continue to be a key philosophy going forward.
“certain swimmers on the team will go to Denmark off the back of competing at the FiNA World cups and they will conclude the short-course season in Glasgow at the Duel in the pool. This is part of a strategy of racing more often as we want to see our leading swimmers to be competing more regularly. Racing regu- larly is something we will continue next year during the long course season.
“We will be racing at events between January and march, focusing on our trials in April and then competition will pick up again as we use the month of June to really define our race preparation.”
Furniss is looking to analyse each individual performance at the European championships in great detail to better understand where performance improvements can be made.
“Because we’re competing at a short course event we will closely monitor the skills of the athletes,” said Furniss. “We will look at each individual’s starts, turns and overall tactics to see where we can support and provide future development.”