Furniss challenges swimmers to push on towards Rio
BySportsbeat
Published 29/10/2015 at 11:43 GMT
Great Britain's swimmers may have powered their way to a record-breaking World Championships this summer but head coach Bill Furniss insists his athletes must keep pushing the bar higher as the countdown to Rio 2016 gathers pace.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Back in August, the British swimming team returned from the Russian city of Kazan with five gold, one silver and three bronze – enough to put them fourth in the swimming medal table.
It was a marked improvement on the previous World Championships in 2013 where the team achieved just a solitary podium finish.
And while a massive confidence boost for the whole team, Furniss insists there is no chance of his athletes easing up in the pool, with next year's Olympics looming large.
"We have achieved great things in 2015 but we're not taking anything for granted," Furniss told British Swimming.
"The World Championship results are history now - we have to move forward and continue towards the next challenge ahead to make sure we are at our very best next summer.
"It's an important year ahead with an Olympics as the focus so this period of preparation is vital in ensuring the athlete prepares well and prepares thoroughly. Collectively as a group we need to go into 2016 doing everything a little better than we did this year.
"We know we have to move it forward again next year. We had a good World Championships in 2015 but we also know our level of performance has to improve again because Rio will be a sterner test."
Britain's elite swimmers are currently busy undergoing hard training although they will start to combine this with race preparation and process practice across a number of events before the end of the year.
That begins next week with the first of two FINA World Cups in Doha and Dubai at the start of November with 22 athletes across both Podium and Podium Potential programmes, including three-time world champion Adam Peaty, set to compete.
Peaty, seven-time European champion Fran Halsall and ten others will then be in action at the European Short Course Championships in Israel from December 2-6, with seven athletes also contested the Duel in the Pool (December 11-12) and the Amsterdam Cup (December 11-13).
"The events over the next two months are the first batch of competitions of the Olympic year and provide a first outing for our athletes," Furniss added.
"It's not something they will be fully focused on but these events allow us to familiarise ourselves with and practice once again the processes we need to make sure we're ready for next summer.
"Together these events provide a batch of solid competitions and one of our big focuses over the past two years has been to encourage athletes to compete more often to practice their racing preparation and skills.
"We will also be taking a group of athletes to Rio next month for a camp where they can familiarise themselves with the culture and climate ahead of the Games."
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