A British Swimming squad will be put through its paces at an Arizona training camp in the States before facing members of an American swimming team that was so dominant at the World Championships in March.

British Swimming Head Coach Ian Turner will take charge of a squad of 16 swimmers at a Phoenix training camp for two-and-a-half weeks before competition at the Novaquatics Speedo Grand Challenge meet in Irvine, California gets underway later this month.

The swimmers fly out this weekend looking to put together a block of training on which to build as they enter a season which will shape their Olympic aspirations in just 15 months’ time.

And at the end of their warm weather training camp they will face the tough test of facing some of America’s greatest swimmers on home soil.

“We will go into the meet off a demanding training camp without any rest, unshaved and feeling the effects from a lot of hard work beforehand,” said Turner.

“It’s a relaxed meet but it will feature world-class entries as well as many of the top Americans who took the sport of swimming to an entirely new level at the Melbourne World Championships in March.”

For some of the British squad it will be familiar territory as they have competed in Irvine before. One big difference, however, is the fact they will face swimmers from the world’s number one nation on a high following their remarkable performances in Melbourne.

“A British team raced at the Irvine meet two years ago off the back of a camp in Pheonix and swam particularly well,” said Turner. “But America is currently way ahead of the world as we saw in Melbourne and we will be looking to get closer to them with an Olympics 15 months away.”

Turner’s aim for the camp and competition is to give the athletes an uninterrupted block of short and long course training while developing a team spirit that will stand up well to the pressures of international competition.

“The focus of the tour is put together a foundation of hard training, race tough without rest and to promote interaction between the swimmers,” said Turner.

“It’s part of a plan for many of the group to race five times between now and the end of the season to promote a familiarity with performing while in a racing environment and this is where it all begins.

“The tour also provides an opportunity for the swimmers to develop bonds between themselves. It’s important to have that interaction and for the athletes to have more opportunities to race each other. It’s imperative for team spirit.”

In Phoenix the group will train outdoors over 50m and 25m before they race outdoors in California (25th to 27th May) in the William Woollett Jr Aquatics Complex long course pool.

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British Swimmers attending the Phoenix Warm Weather Camp (6th to 24th May) and Irvine Meet in California (25th to 27th May) are:

Simon Burnett (Wycombe/Arizona) 
David Carry (Loughborough University) 
Matthew Clay (Swansea Performance) 
Chris Cook (City of Newcastle) 
Daniel Coombs (Gallica/Offshore Centre, Aus) 
Euan Dale (Loughborough University) 
Ross Davenport (Loughborough University) 
David Davies (City of Cardiff) 
James Goddard (Loughborough University) 
Ben Hockin (Swansea Performance) 
James Kirton (City of Sheffield) 
Robert Lang (City of Edinburgh) 
Dean Milwain (Loughborough University) 
John Owen (City of Edinburgh) 
Michael Unsworth (Wigan BEST) 
Melanie Marshall (Loughborough University) 

For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on 01509 632237, 0778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@swimming.org

British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association)  British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

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