Britons offered Olympic incentive

MELBOURNE, Mar 22 (Reuters) British swimmers have been given the added incentive of an automatic place in next year's Olympic team for Beijing if they perform well at the world championships starting on Sunday.

Britain's performance director Bill Sweetenham said any British swimmer who finishes in the top-four in their event at Melbourne will be pre-selected for Beijing.

Sweetenham's plan still has to be approved by the British Olympic Association but the Australian said he was hopeful it would be rubber-stamped.

Sweetenham said the swimmers would also earn selection for the 2008 European championships in Eindhoven in March and the 2008 short-course world titles in Manchester in April.

This would allow the swimmers to focus their efforts on peaking for the Olympics rather than having to first qualify for them.

''We intend to use the world championships here to pre-select any one swimmer that ranks top four for any individual event,'' Sweetenham said.

''They will hopefully be approved to go through and be pre-selected for the Olympic team for 2008.

''By doing that, we will focus our best athletes on an August preparation for next year, rather than a March preparation for trials.'' British swimming has been riding a wave of success in the past 12 months, highlighted by impressive displays at the Commonwealth Games and European championships.

Head coach Ian Turner said he was confident the British would improve on their modest haul of three bronze medals from the last world championships in Montreal but warned against expectations of a gold rush.

''We did find it very difficult in Montreal and will find it very difficult here as well. The field, if you look at the start sheet, is very tough indeed,'' he said.

REUTERS SAM VV1836