Liam Tancock is still confident of making an impression at the Olympics despite his poor performance at the European Swimming Championship in Eindhoven.

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The Commonweath Games 100m backstroke winner failed to make the final in the Netherlands despite having moved through the first round with the third-fastest time.

In his semi-final he was only fifth, and then he lost out in a swim-off with Italy's Mirco Di Tora for the final spot in the finals.

However, the Loughborough student said that the event is not high on his list of priorities as he looks to peak just in time for Beijing.

Tancock is one of only three British swimmers, along with David Davies and Kirsty Balfour, who have already been guaranteed Olympic spots because they won medals at last year's World Championships.

In those championships in Melbourne, Tancock won bronze in the 100m and also the 50m (which is not an Olympic event).

Tancock dismissed concerns over his performance in Eindhoven and said that he is fully focused on giving himself the best possible chance of winning a medal in Beijing.

"I'm not ready to race yet, my target at this stage of the year is the British Championships in a couple of weeks where I'll be looking to add other events to my Olympic qualification," he said after his failure at the Europeans.

"There's no doubt I would have liked to have gone quicker. I was pleased with my morning performance but I felt it tonight and couldn't get into what was a very good field."

Tancock could have a secret weapon in his quest for Olympic glory too - his swimsuit.

He was one of the key 'guinea pigs' for the Nasa-developed Speedo LZR Racer (the suit that will be worn by Michael Phelps) which has already helped swimmers around the world to break records - with three world backstroke records alone having been set in the suit already.

Tancock, who will also look to qualify for the individual medley and play a role in the relay teams, should be a busy man in Beijing if he qualifies for all the events he is targeting.

Putting a number of quality races together at the same time will prove to be Tancock's biggest test in China, and he will be hoping that Eindhoven is just a warm-up exercise and not an omen of things to come.

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Seán Fay / Eurosport