British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss admits he is looking for a big finish to what has been a happy 2014 at the World Short Course Championships in Qatar.
Great Britain have sent a team of 11 to Doha for the Championships – that get underway on December 3 – with the squad boasting 10 Commonwealth Games and six European titles between them already this year.
Ones to watch include Commonwealth and European champions Jazz Carlin, Fran Halsall and Adam Peaty, as well as defending champion Hannah Miley.
And Furniss is hoping for one big finale to 2014 before attentions turn to next year’s World Long Course Championships in Kazan, Russia.
“We’ve had a good year with some strong performances and I’m looking forward to finishing it off at these short course World Championships,” said Furniss.
“The team’s main focus will be to practice the processes we’ve targeted ahead of next year. As we continue to improve as a nation this has to be our motivation rather than the outcome.
“It isn’t a benchmark event for us but I think any opportunity to race against the best in the world shouldn’t be wasted. We will use it as a stepping stone to next year’s long course World Championships and will specifically look at our starts, turns and finishes to see where improvements can be made.
“All athletes will be in different stages of preparation. There will also be a number of short course specialist swimmers while others, such as the British contingent, will go into the event off the back of a hard block of training and preparation for next year.”
© Sportsbeat 2014