STOCKHOLM, Sweden, January 16. A squad of 15 swimmers will fly the British flag at the European rounds of FINA's World Cup series that begins tomorrow in Stockholm and concludes this weekend in Berlin. The majority of the squad will use the two-day meets to continue preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Australia in March while others will gain valuable experience of international competition for the first time.<\/p>\n
For the likes of Breaststroke specialist Chris Cook, the World Cup legs will allow him to work on racing skills while continuing his training workload in time for the Melbourne Games which begin on March 15.<\/p>\n
"I'm sure they're going to be fast meets,\u201d Cook said. \u201cI think the kind of form shown at the European Championships last month will continue and the racing will be fierce in both Stockholm and Berlin. That's what I'm looking for – tough, high-caliber, fast international racing. When the rest of the field is all guns blazing and you're still in heavy training, it's an amazing challenge and you draw a lot of confidence from competing with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over recent years, the European legs of the World Cup have been used to fuel new British Swimming talent and this year is no exception with seven of the 15 members relative newcomers to the international scene. Head Coach Bill Pilczuk will lead the squad team, which goes head-to-head with some of the world's biggest names in Stockholm on January 17-18 and continues in Berlin on January 21-22.<\/p>\n
"The younger members of the squad will use these World Cups to gain valuable racing experience," said Pilczuk. "There will be no rest for the athletes as we'll expect them to get up to race against the big hitters there while in full training. They'll be able to see first hand what an international meet is all about and how the biggest names in the sport deal with the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The British squad includes:<\/p>\n
Kirsty Balfour (City of Edinburgh)
\nJames Clarke (Millfield)
\nMatt Clay (University of Bath)
\nChris Cook (City of Newcastle)
\nJonathan Cook (Nova Centurion)
\nJames Gibson (Loughborough University)
\nKris Gilchrist (City of Edinburgh)
\nKate Haywood (Loughborough University)
\nJames Johnson (City of Newcastle)
\nMel Marshall (Loughborough University)
\nDean Milwain (City of Derby)
\nMax Partridge (City of Sheffield)
\nJonathan Quinn (Hatfield)
\nLiam Tancock (Loughborough University)
\nLiam Turner (City of Cardiff)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, January 16. A squad of 15 swimmers will fly the British flag at the European rounds of FINA's World Cup series that begins tomorrow in Stockholm and concludes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n