GB name youthful open water squad for Worlds

BRITISH Swimming open water performance director Mark Perry insists the road to success is a marathon not a sprint even though there is just six weeks to go until the World Championships.

Team GB have named a seven-strong squad for the World Championships just off Ostia - the harbour city of Ancient Rome - including Olympic silver medallist Keri-Anne Payne.

Great Britain dominated the recent LEN Open Water Cup in Eilat, Israel and scooped four of the six medals on offer, but Perry is adamant he will not be gauging his troops' Roman performance by the amount of silverware they get hands on.

"We got a lot out of the tournament in Israel. We took a few new swimmers out of the pool and tested them, and found that they have an aptitude for Open Water," said Perry.

"We're mainly going to the World Championships for the experience - everything now is about building a team and working toward London 2012 which is our main goal.

"There are definitely a number of great young athletes on the team: Richard Charlesworth and Daniel Fogg are doing really well and Katie Whitfield was awesome in Israel. Hopefully they'll be able to perform on an even bigger stage."

Perry will be without the services of Beijing medallists David Davies - who has opted to concentrate on the pool - and Cassie Patten in Rome.  

And while Perry remains adamant medals do not matter, he revealed he would not be surprised to see Payne return from the Eternal City with something to declare.

"We're obviously going in minus two medallists, but we still have Keri-Anne so we are hoping for good things from her," he said.

"We would love to come away with a few medals but we have to be realistic so we can't expect a repeat of Beijing, but there should definitely be some good performances.

"It will be good to put them up against the world's best and see how they perform."