British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss believes the likes of Adam Peaty and James Guy are setting the standard for others to follow.
Peaty enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2014, winning double gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games before taking home gold in four different disciplines at the European Championships, as well as setting a new 50m breaststroke world record along the way.
Most recently, he picked up three silvers – in the 50m and 100m breaststroke and 4x50m mixed medley relay – at the World Short Course Championships in Doha.
In total, the team claimed eights medals at that meet – seven silver and one bronze – as Great Britain went two better than the haul managed two years ago in Istanbul.
Like Peaty, Guy also climbed the medal rostrum in Qatar, setting a new British 400m freestyle record on the way to silver.
The performances typify a year of confident and successful swimming from Britain’s swimmers – providing somewhat of a contrast from both London 2012 where they picked up just three medals and the 2013 World Championships which produced just one podium finish from the pool.
And Furniss believes preparation and a lack of fear about delivering on the big stage is key for the upturn in fortunes.
“Adam Peaty and James Guy are great examples of where we want to get to, James didn’t just break the british record, he took a sledgehammer to it and he clearly learnt from the 200m free earlier in the meet,” he said.
“There’s no fear and why should there be? It’s what you train to do, it’s what you prepare to do and for me competition is where you demonstrate your preparation.
“If you’ve planned well you should compete well and sometimes athletes get all sorts of other things that interfere with that and that is what we are trying to do with good behaviours to eliminate those other things.”
© Sportsbeat 2014