PORTMARNOCK swimmer Fiona Doyle said that she was disappointed with her performance at the European short course championships in Denmark last week, but is determined that her main focus for the month, the Duel In The Pool which takes place this weekend in Glasgow and which will see the 44 best male and female swimmers from Europe pitted against their American counterparts will prove as satisfying as the rest of her 2013 has been so far.
She has previously won silver with a superb performance at the World University Games in Russia in July in the 100m breaststroke matched with an Irish record-breaking time of 1.07.66, before coming 11th overall in the same event at the World Championships in Barcelona. She also finished 14th overall in the 50m breaststroke semi-final.
Speaking to Gazette Sport before she flew to Glasgow for the event, she was confident and excited ahead of the challenge of taking on some of the best in the world.
“ It’s going to be incredibly fast and really exciting, I’m really looking forward to competing and I’m honoured that I was chosen for the event.
“There are no medals this weekend, but it will be the world’s top swimmers going there, and I’m getting close to that at the moment, so I’m excited to see how I will perform against them.”
The progress Doyle has made this year has been down to a conscious effort to get to the next level that was driven by her not being a part of the team that went to London 2012.
“Not making the Olympics last year was tough for me, and I changed some things in terms of training and diet, to see if that would make a difference in my performances.
“I went into last September trying to change my whole attitude, trying to be more positive and make smarter decisions. I started to see an improvement in how I was reacting to workouts and going in and giving my all every day. To make those small changes and to see such a change was fantastic.
“I hit the goals I set out to achieve, and even surpassed them. It was great to see everything finally fall into place for me, and makes it really exciting for me coming into the summer and ahead of the Olympics in Rio.”
Doyle is keen to make sure she does not miss out on another major meet again, and begins her journey to the 2014 European long-course championships next August in Berlin as soon as the new year arrives.
“There is a qualifying process to go through which starts in January. I basically have to go and hit the time I have already done to qualify, and I am hoping to do that early in the year before I come home to the Irish nationals and give that another go.
“The long course championships will be a main focus for me. Europe has some of the fastest swimmers in breaststroke, my main event, so the meet in Berlin will be an indication of where people are going to be at in the next few years. “
