THE Great Britain team for this week’s World Short Course Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China, is certainly small. With just three athletes from these islands taking the plunge to compete out in Asia, compared to 39 from Russia, 37 from Japan, 35 from the USA and 32 from both Italy and hosts China, let’s just say we shouldn’t expect to return with any relay medals. But for Mark Szaranek, a double Commonwealth medallist for Scotland at April’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, that only tells part of the story.
“The British team here is pretty small,” admits Szaranek, formerly one of the Sunday Herald’s six athletes to follow. “But it is small and mighty I would say. Ben Proud and Georgia Davies are two of the top swimmers in the world and we are all looking to come here, swim our main events with real focus and come away with a few medals.”
For Szaranek, who trains out at the illustrious University of Florida Gators swim club alongside swimming super stars like USA’s Caleb Dressel, that means the 400IM, in which he won silver for Scotland in Australia, now incorporating 16 lengths rather than just eight, the 200IM and the 200m freestyle. While many other key members of Scotland’s swimming fraternity are busy right now competing in his old haunt at the Royal Commonwealth Pool at the Scottish Short Course Swimming Championships, Szaranek is deadly serious about making a splash at world level.
“Why is it so important for me to be out here?” he said. “Well, after all, it IS a World Championships. It might be in a shorter pool but it is still a World Championships, still a big deal. British swimming might have placed their focus elsewhere, more on the long course, and that is kind of their decision to do so but even if it is short course I still want to come here and represent the country as best I can and hopefully come away with some medals.”
With swimming in short course pools, even if they are measured in yards rather than metres, is commonplace in the US collegiate system, Szaranek feels he is playing to his strengths in this form of the sport.
“I like to think I am pretty good at the turns and underwaters so it plays to my strengths,” says Szaranek, who will also be hoping to compete this time next year at the European Short Course Championships to be held at Scotstoun, Glasgow. “At the last short course world championships I came away with a fifth and a sixth so I will be looking to improve on that as I feel I have moved on my swimming a significant amount since then. I am definitely a better athlete than I was in 2016. So I will be looking to move it on and hopefully come away with some better finishes.
“I see a chance here to kind of make a name for myself on the world stage,” he added. “I had a pretty successful Commonwealth Games but it is not quite the same level as a world championships. I am trying to take that next step, in terms of competing for the top three spots. It is not all about medals but they are what British swimming look for, that is where we are aiming. We don’t aim just to be competitive, we aim to be at the top. First you need to get into the final, then it is a case of racing for the medals.”
With Proud and Davies both arriving on Friday, Szaranek spent the last few days alone, acclimatising to life in Hangzhou, a city of 10 million people. Having spent some time in Japan last summer, he would dearly love to be back in Asia for the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. China is 13 hours ahead of East Coast US so I came out a couple of days early just to get acclimatised. I’ve been out here for a few days on my own but the organising has been pretty good here, I’ve had no problems.“This is the first time I’ve ever been in China and it’s interesting. It is pretty different … but it seems all right so far. The hotel here is really nice, the people have been nice and the food has been good as well, because I was a little worried about that beforehand.”
“I am a big fan of short course swimming, I like it, so yes. absolutely, anything at home I would be looking to compete in and a European short course in Glasgow would be a great meet. We put on a show for the long course Europeans in September.
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