Michael Jamieson claims it’s all about making it into Great Britain’s World Championship squad and not medals at the British Gas Swimming Championships.
The Olympic silver medallist qualified for Thursday evening’s 200m breaststroke semi-finals in a time of 2:13.98 minutes, even preserving energy in the final length.
The 24-year-old, who currently holds the British record over the distance of 2:07.43, finished third overall in the heats and insists he’s confident of claiming gold and securing his place in the Barcelona-bound squad.
“I thought the race was alright, it's quite hard to tell what sort of shape I am in and it was good to get the first one out the way and I plan to kick on tonight (Thursday),” he said.
“I think the idea here for me is to just get on the team whatever way possible so I will try and go a little bit quicker in the semis and see what happens tomorrow (in the final).”
Robbie Renwick might have dipped below the qualifying standard for the worlds in the 400m freestyle on Wednesday but the performance in the heats of his favoured 200m discipline was equally impressive.
Renwick, who has already competed at three World Championships, cruised home with a time of 1:49.48 and looks on course to defend last year’s title.
He said: “It felt okay surprisingly. The time wasn’t too fast, but I wasn’t trying too hard at the end there so that was probably why.
“I think it’s just flushing out all the lactic from last night (Wednesday) and giving it a good go in the semi-final.
“It is harder to come off the 400m into a shorter distance. Having the 400m on the first day is brutal and I was hurting a lot.”
Elsewhere, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Hannah Miley secured her place in the final of the women’s 400m medley with a time of 4:39.39, which sets up an intriguing battle with Aimee Willmott.
They qualified second and first respectively from the heats and both swimmers will be aiming to beat 4:40.75 again in the final to secure their qualification for Barcelona this summer.