James Denny insists thoughts of Rio and the Olympics won’t be far from his mind as the Leeds diver gears up for his World Championship debut.
This season has been one to remember for Denny already, the 21-year-old making his debut in the World Diving Series when he performed at the London Aquatic Centre.
But the firsts continue to flood in and Denny is now gearing himself up to make his World Championship bow in Kazan, Russia, next week.
This all follows on from a memorable 2014 where Denny won his first senior British title with 3m Springboard gold, before claiming his first senior international medal when he won 10m synchro silver with Tom Daley on his Commonwealth Games debut.
And as he prepares to tick off another box on his burgeoning CV, Denny is not prepared to slow down any time soon with next year’s Olympic Games in Rio looming large on the horizon.
“It was quite a surprise to be named on the team for the World Championships as it is hard to break into the top level of competition,” he said.
“But while I didn’t expect it I thought that I was in with a shout because I had been performing well and the World Championships seemed like a logical next step.
“Me and Matty Lee have been working really hard for it because at the beginning of the season we saw there was a bit of a gap and we thought we would put something together for it.
“It has been my first experience of competing in the World Series and it was great to end it in the Olympic pool in London and it just summed up everything perfectly.
“I want to just go out to the World Championship now and get a feel for it. I will be happy if we just make the final and from there we can really push for one of those top three places because anything can happen in a final.
“But the main thing is to just soak up the experience and use it as a building block for the Olympics as that is the main aim I guess – especially at my first World Championships.
“The World Championships are a big competition but next year is even bigger and every athlete has ambitions to go to an Olympics and I am no different.”
Great Britain enjoyed their best ever Diving World Series as they won a total of 20 medals to finish second overall behind powerhouse China.
And Denny is adamant that form can carry over into the World Championships – with the City of Leeds ace determined to play his part too.
“British divers finished second in the World Series behind China so that shows the talent we have in this country right now and it is a great time to be part of the squad,” he added.
“Hopefully we can continue to show what we can do and I can play my part out in Russia."