Davies claims 1500m gold but no British record

Posted: Friday 20th March 2009 | 21:48

David Davies vowed to podium at the World Championships, after failing to claim a 1500m British record in Sheffield.

Davies vows to break British reccord in Rome
ITALIAN JOB: Daives claims 1500m freestyle gold and promises British record in Rome (Getty Images)

The recently-crowned 400m champion and national record holder was a shoe-in to add 1500m gold to his tally in Sheffield, with the question purely being how fast could he go.

The 24-year-old City of Cardiff swimmer touched home in 14:52.41 minutes - a full 15.9 seconds ahead of nearest rival Richard Charlesworth.

But he ended up 6.46 secs short of his own British record, set when winning bronze at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

"It was a really hard race to compete in," he said.

"Obviously I've done the 200m and the 400m this week so my legs felt really heavy coming into the last couple of hundred metres.

"The time wasn't as good as I have done in the past but that is all to do with the training. I've been focusing very hard on power and strength since Christmas and my endurance work has suffered - I'm probably doing about 10,000 metres less a week.

"My training over the next six months will be very much focused on the endurance side of things, to make sure that I am in good shape for the 1500m in Rome."

And Davies revealed he is already thinking about returning to the Olympic podium for the third time in a row at London 2012.

"This week is all a part of the four year programme," he said. "Coming away from Beijing i realised that I wasn't as big or strong as the other lads, so my programme is designed with London in mind.

"I have a lot of big decisions coming up with regards to what events I want to do. My main event is the 1500m and the aim of this week was to make sure I got to the world championships in that event."

RYAN BANGS in Sheffield