2003 euro short course - bill's big experiment pays dividends
Just what importance the results at last week's European Short Course championships have in the bigger scheme of things remains to be seen, but the performance of the British team was yet another indication of how things have turned round in recent years. Second overall in the medal table was a fair reflection of some excellent swimming, and all produced off the back of the now customary harsh preparation.
Equally intriguing though was the concept of using this meet to blood new internationals, as a result of Bill Sweetenham's proposal to LEN to accept up to four entries for every event from each nation. All of which is perhaps an indication of how highly the big Australian rates this competition, but the policy had some interesting consequences for the meet as a whole. Chief amongst them from a British perspective was the necessity for swimmers in our stronger events to perform to their best in the heats or face elimination with only two athletes from each country able to progress to the semis and finals of each event.
So it was that our two new world champions James Gibson and Katy Sexton found themselves unceremoniously dumped out of the 50m breaststroke and 100m backstroke respectively, having been bettered by their domestic rivals. Not that they necessarily swam badly, indeed Gibson was hugely impressive in taking the 100m breaststroke title and showing good stamina over his less favoured 200m event, it was just that others rose to the occasion more.
Conversely, there was also good fortune that came from the nationality quotas in the later rounds. Mark Foster, so often the lazy qualifier almost came unstuck here when he could only finish 17th in the heats of the 50m freestyle - the event in which he is of course world record holder. Luckily for him he was eclipsed by three Germans and he made it through via a swim off to take yet another European title. He didn't make the same mistake again in the 50m fly, as he easily took another gold.
There were no such mistakes from the other medallists, the pick of whom was undoubtedly Ian Edmond, who took a hugely impressive gold over 200m breaststroke with a new European Record of 2:05.63, although the surprise title taken by Jo Jackson over 400m in only her second senior international was also a highlight. She even eclipsed Sweetenham's swimmer of the year as Rebecca Cooke had to settle for silver. Meanwhile Melanie Marshall continued to show her potential to be a world class 200m freestyler with a well paced victory in that event and Alison Sheppard showed she is over the disappointments of Barcelona with gold over 100IM and silver in the 50m freestyle. It was also good to see Robin Francis continue his return to form with silver over 400m IM in a British record, despite subsequently being sent home, allegedly for shaving down for the final in contravention of team rules. Elsewhere, there were encouraging performances from our lady breaststroke swimmers, with good placings from Rachel Genner and Kirsty Balfour, both of whom set British records, over 10om and 200m respectively.
So another encouraging display which justifies continued optimism from all concerned. However as Bill is so fond of saying, Olympic medals will already be won between no ad our Olympic trials so there is no time for resting on the laurels for anyone serious about being a contender in Athens. What they can take away from Dublin though was that the events of Barcelona were no fluke and there is an upward trend to be continued into next year.