Around the federations: Denmark, Germany, Great Britain gear up for Doha Worlds

At the 2012 World Short Course Championships the Danish team finished fourth in the medal standings collecting nine medals in total, three gold, two silver and four bronze.

Going into Doha National Team Director Michael Andersen has stated that the nations goal is to come home with 6-7 medals, “I think that the objective is 6-7 medals,” Andersen told the Danish Swimming Federation.

“It can be difficult to assess at this stage, because it is the short course championships and not all countries make it a priority.”

“I think that the Danish swimmers have shown good momentum during the autumn, and our expectations are positive.”

Andersen points out the usual suspects when it comes to who should be standing on the podium. They include Jeanette Ottesen, Rikke Moller Pedersen and Mie Nielsen.

At the 2012 championships Ottesen won bronze in both the 50 freestyle and butterfly, Pedersen won the 200 breaststroke and finished third in the 100 while Nielsen took the silver in the 100 backstroke. The three women with the addition of Pernille Blume took the gold in the 4 x 100 medley relay while Ottesen, Nielsen and Blume combined with Kelly Rasmussen took the bronze in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay.

The team will be without one of their stars though as Lotte Friis has decided to skip the event. Friis collected the silver in the 800 freestyle in 2012.

Andersen is also looking forward to see how the 200 butterfly European Champion Viktor Bromer will perform, “It will be interesting to see Viktor B. Bromer after he performed so well at the long courseEuropean Championships,” said Andersen.

“He now comes up against the best in the world and it will be interesting to see how he finishes in the standings.”

Andersen also stressed that he is excited to see what the younger Danish swimmers can do with the opportunity they have been given.

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After finishing seventh in the medal standings in 2012 with two gold, one silver and one bronze the German team comes into the 2014 Championships looking at the meet as a measuring stick for the 2015 World Championships in Kazan and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“We can compete with the best swimmers in the world in Doha so we can see where we stand in comparison,” National Team Head Coach Henning Lambertz told the German Swimming Federation. The athletes that will have the best chance to stand on the podium include Marco Koch, Christian Diener, Steffen Deibler and Markus Deibler.

Lambertz would not make his medal expectations public, choosing instead to tell the federation that he was looking for a good number of strong performances in the finals and semi-finals.

There has been some sickness going around the German squad. Dorte Baumert and Tim Wallburger were not able to train for a few days while medal hopeful Steffen Deibler also feelt some of the effects.

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After having several strong performances this summer the British team will be looking to carry that momentum into Doha.

National Team Head Coach Bill Furniss says that he does not want his team to waste any opportunities they have to race the best in the world, but that the competition is a stepping stone rather than a benchmark, “We’ve had a good year with some strong performances and I’m looking forward to finishing it off at these short course World Championships,” said Furniss.

“The team’s main focus will be to practice the processes we’ve targeted ahead of next year. As we continue to improve as a nation this has to be our motivation rather than the outcome.”

“It isn’t a benchmark event for us but I think any opportunity to race against the best in the world shouldn’t be wasted. We will use it as a stepping stone to next year’s long course World Championships and will specifically look at our starts, turns and finishes to see where improvements can be made.”

The team will be without a few of their top swimmers including Ross Murdoch, Michael Jamieson and Aimee Willmott.

Furniss also hinted that the results will be mixed as many of the swimmers are in different phases of their preparation, “All athletes will be in different stages of preparation. There will also be a number of short course specialist swimmers while others, such as the British contingent, will go into the event off the back of a hard block of training and preparation for next year.”