Swimming: Duel for Spofforth

Spofforth: Looking forward to home meet

It will be a great experience to race in front of a home crowd

Gemma Spofforth
Quotes of the week

British world champion Gemma Spofforth is relishing the chance of a meet in front of a home crowd at the British Gas Duel in the Pool in December.

The 21-year-old, who secured record-breaking gold in the 100m backstroke at the world championships in Rome this year, will compete against the USA in the event at the Manchester Aquatics Centre as part of a team made up of athletes from Great Britain, Germany and Italy.

Alongside Spofforth, the two teams will feature a host of high profile names, with the USA team spearheaded by 14-time Olympic medallist Michael Phelps.

Spofforth, who is based in Florida, is looking forward to returning home to race in front of British supporters and hopes the big names on the bill will help boost interest in swimming.

"I haven't experienced a meet at home with a big crowd," said Spofforth.

"Hopefully a meet like this with such high profile swimmers will be something the British public will be interested in and go and watch."

Experience

Spofforth, who is hoping to make waves at the London 2012 Olympics, also believes that the meet will provide valuable experience ahead of the Games.

"It will be a great experience to race in front of a home crowd," she added.

"Hopefully it will be one that I can experience again in 2012."

Spofforth added that since her triumph in Rome she has been training harder than ever and hopes she can build on her world championships success.

"I'm the same person, but maybe I've changed as a swimmer, my work ethic has changed," she said.

"Hopefully I can repeat performances and keep doing what I'm doing."

Spofforth also revealed she is expecting team spirit to be high for the meet and hailed the event for providing a more light-hearted alternative to the training regime.

"I'm expecting a team-orientated atmosphere and hopefully the spectators can get behind everybody," added Spofforth.

"Barring the language barrier, I hope we can all realise a team is a team and we can go out there and have fun.

"It breaks up the training cycle and is something we can enjoy."

Olympian

Also anticipating the event is American Olympic gold medallist Ryan Lochte, who features in the 36-person USA team alongside 16 other fellow Olympians.

"I know all the people so I know there are a lot of big names," said 25-year-old Lochte, who will be competing in Manchester for the first time since 2008.

"We have a good team and I've been in many Duels in the Pools before so we're going to go out there and just have fun.

"I'm not going to think about winning or losing, I'm just going to go out there and race."

The short-course event is the fourth all-star swim meet in the series, but the first not to feature a rivalry between the United States and Australia.

Lochte admitted that although the USA and Australia have previously been dominant in competitive swimming, other countries are now presenting more serious opposition.

"It's going to be tough," added Lochte. "You can from tell from the Worlds in Rome, it's not just the US against Australia anymore, everyone is getting a lot faster.

"Definitely Great Britain has been coming up and the US are going to watch out for them."

Gemma Spofforth will be competing for Europe going head to head with the best swimmers from USA at the British Gas Duel in the Pool at the Manchester Aquatics Centre on 18th and 19th December. For more information on this fantastic festive competition between USA and Europe and to order your tickets go to www.duelinthepool.com