British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss believes this year’s FINA Short Course World Championships can be a useful learning experience for his swimmers ahead of the 2015 World Swimming Championships.
A team of 12 British swimmers, boasting 11 Commonwealth and six European titles between them, has been announced for the Championships at Doha’s Hamad Aquatic Centre which run from 3-7 December.
It comes after a hectic year in the pool, which has seen success for the Home Nations at the Commonwealth Games before British Swimming topped the table at the 2014 European Championships in Berlin.
Commonwealth and European gold medalists Jazz Carlin, Fran Halsall and Adam Peaty as well as defending 400m individual medley champion Hannah Miley are all included in the squad.
And Furniss believes the meet provides a great opportunity for the swimmers to hone their skills ahead of next year’s long course season, culminating in the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
“It’s a small team but one which is full of some of our leading performers from what has been a successful year,” said Furniss.
“Whereas these short course World Championships are not a key stage meet for us they are still very important in terms of the development of our athletes and their racing strategies.
“Short course swimming is all about starts, turns and finishes and we will be looking to use Doha to practice and improve these skills ahead of the long course season next year.
“Our next big challenge and performance marker will be the 2015 World Championships in Russia and for some of our athletes the event in Doha provides a perfect stepping stone towards that.
“We will of course be aiming to do well but our main goal will be to practice skills and improve our rankings on the world stage next year.”
© Sportsbeat 2014