Information on Loughborough

Loughborough swimmers eye Olympic selection

Posted on 31/03/2008
P. Klein

swimmerLoughborough’s Liam Tancock and University-based David Davies have already qualified for Team GB through top three performances at last year’s World Championships. Other Loughborough swimmers, including Commonwealth Champions Caitlin McClatchey and Ross Davenport and multi-Commonwealth medallist Mel Marshall, are also favourites in the mix to gain Olympic selection.

Loughborough-based David Carry, swimming for Aberdeen Dolphins, will face tough competition for one of two spots up for grabs in the Freestyle events as he tries to make it to his second Olympics and improve on his world ranking.

“My aim is to obviously qualify for the Olympic squad but to also re-establish myself in the world’s top 10 again,” he said.

“I have been through a selection event for the Olympics before and I know what to expect, but regardless of your experience it is possibly the most intense competition you could attend. There is more pressure on athletes to perform here than at an Olympics. But this is what we thrive off and what pushes us on to bring out better performances.

“I am really excited about seeing how fast I will be able to swim this week. I haven’t had many opportunities to swim fast since last summer and I will be eager to see how much I have improved since the last time I raced.”

Loughborough University Director of Swimming Ian Armiger is delighted with the number of swimmers that have achieved fast times to compete in Sheffield and hopes a good number of them will go on to gain Olympic selection.

“The strength in depth of this team is outstanding,” he said. “To have 40 swimmers at an Olympic Trials where qualification times are really tough is a fantastic achievement.

“The racing starts tonight and we expect to equal or surpass the number of swimmers at the Athens Olympics. We do have a couple of medal chances for Beijing as well. Our swimmers are performing well at the moment and after some great swims at the Europeans we expect them to step up to the next level in Sheffield. We might even see more British records fall.”