Brits poised for synchronised success

Eurosport - Fri, 06 Nov 15:49:00 2009

British synchronised swimming performance director Biz Price expects England and Scotland's finest to be among the medals at next October's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison - 0

Canadian-born Price took the reins at the centralised national performance centre in Aldershot 18 months ago and has already brought about significant progress in the British ranks.

In the duet, Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison have moved up to 14th in the world rankings while at the World Championships Team GB reached the final in all but one of the six disciplines.

With no rich Olympic history to speak of, a few eyebrows were raised back in January when water polo received a 110 per cent funding increase from UK Sport, but Price insists Team GB are ahead of schedule on their road to London 2012.

"We have enjoyed a very successful 2009 and the sport is definitely on the rise," said Price. "The challenge that we will face as we head towards 2012 is to continue our rise and the rate at which we are improving.

"We are ahead of the schedule that I set when I joined but also have a good sense of urgency knowing that the Olympics are so close.

"We have found a strong nucleus of athletes that are currently centralised, but we will be looking to build on them in the lead up to 2012.

"We have made a huge jump with the current athletes that we have on the national squad and that was shown in our results at the World Championships.

"For next year our main events are the FINA Cup in China and the Commonwealth Games. We reached the final in every event apart from one in Rome at the World Championships and we will aim to final in every event at the FINA Cup.

"And at the Commonwealths I would like to see both England and Scotland achieve medals. That would show me that we are still progressing."

Randall and Allison agonisingly missed out on a place in the final at last year's Beijing Olympics, but having seen their world ranking jump six places, Randall believes that lightning will not strike twice in London.

"I remember in Beijing, whenever any of the Chinese athletes were introduced the whole crowd went crazy and the stadium trembled," said Randall.

"It was incredible and I'm hoping that London will be like that.

"The fact that it is so close to where I live is amazing and the home crowd will get us really pumped up and ready to compete.

"We've improved a lot in recent years and the team as a whole is really focused on performing in London."

More than the Games / Eurosport

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account