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The golden girls of British swimming have left their male counterparts trailing but former Olympic champion Adrian Moorhouse believes it will not be long before the balance is restored.

At the Beijing Olympics Great Britain finished third in the medals table largely thanks to the heroics of Rebecca Adlington, who captured 400m and 800m freestyle gold in the Water Cube.

Of the six British medallists David Davies was the only male to reach the podium, bagging silver in the 10km open water event, with Jo Jackson, Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten collecting the others.

Indeed, you have to go back to Seoul 1988 when Moorhouse secured 100m breaststroke gold to find the last British male Olympic swimming champion.

Fast forward to the World Championships earlier this year and of the seven British medals, Liam Tancock was the only male to return with something to declare, but Moorhouse believes the boys will be back.

"Absolutely, it's tougher for the men right now," said Moorhouse. "But I think it's great it's the women's turn if you like.

"For a while it was the men who were strong so these things come round in time. They probably have to do a bit more work right now but the women are really fantastic and it's great to see.

"To be honest, since 2000 things have really started picking up and the programme has turned round so dramatically.

"We know how to be successful now and we're seeing the fruits of some of the early labours after Sydney.

"I'm pretty sure it's consistent performance now as well Beijing was good and the Worlds were really good.

"But it's not just momentum we know why and how to be successful and we've got some good swimmers."

Of the six medals won by Team GB in Beijing, three came from the two open water events, a discipline making its debut at the Olympics.

Patten took bronze while Davies and Payne took silver before the latter upgraded to world gold in August.

And Moorhouse is convinced Britain's dominance in the long-distance events is further evidence the future is bright for Team GB. 

"Interestingly what impresses me at the moment is open water stuff," he added. "It's like our marathon and it adds a little bit extra to our sport.

"We're having some real success as well obviously with Kerri-Anne Payne doing fantastically well.

"In the pool, there's quite a few who impress me. Jo Jackson is doing quite well - as an all-rounder to get so many medals is great.

"Then there's Gemma Spofforth getting (100m backstroke) gold. There's a whole stack of them there or thereabouts but what impresses me is their attitude - they actually believe they can start to win at world level."

More than the Games / Eurosport