Great Britain’s everlasting memories from last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, excluding our cyclists, was of our swimming team who while in the Water Cube in Beijing won six medals, which included two gold’s for Rebecca Adlington.
Seven further medals were picked up at the world championships in Rome earlier this year with Liam Tancock and Gemma Spofforth this time the heroes.
For the years climax to the swimming calendar a concept called ‘Duel in the Pool’ something largely only used in America, has been revamped to incorporate more countries to create a Europe vs. America a model based on Golf’s own Ryder Cup.
A team from Great Britain will be joined by their German and Italian counterparts as they take on the might of the USA, which will of course include Michael Phelps.
The USA have consistently held the upper hand at previous world championships, Olympic games and earlier Duel in the Pool competitions, but never have they had to face three countries at once.
A points system has be introduced to score each of the top three finishers in each race, with five points available for first place, three for second and one for third.
The event is to take place in Manchester over this weekend and is sure to further boost the profile and awareness of British swimming in this country and beyond.
The biggest draw of the weekend is sure to be the American Phelps whose seen controversy and loss of form trouble him since his Olympic heroics, and during his first trip to the UK he’ll be looking to make up for those mishaps
Whether the same ability to become a team player will occur like it does for Tiger Woods in Ryder Cups is difficult to say, but either way he’s sure to be a big draw for the crowd and the other competitors.
Phelps will be unable to compete in more than six events over the two days, but expect him to dominate the events he is involved in.
It will be a chance for Britain’s golden girl Adlington to re-assert herself as the world’s No.1 800m swimmer with Jo Jackson set to miss out, and the double Olympic Champions year has been dominated by her decision not to wear the soon to be prohibited swimming suits.
She was left short at the World Championship failing to pick up a gold medal at the event as Jackson amongst others showed the vast difference between the two suits.
It’s the only sour note on what should be wonderful few days for British swimming, and at the end of the day it’s sure to be the difference between a winning European team, and a loosing one.
The medal table at the Olympic Games and World Championships suggest USA should just sneak the win overall, with the combined medals earned from those events by Italy, Germany and Britain, just short of the Americans.
But in truth the British Swimming Association won’t mind too much if the team come up short, because it’s sure to be days full of showing off the depth of Britain’s swimming talent, and along with the brilliant facilities they have to host the event it can only boost the sports importance.
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