Welsh pair in action at British Swimming Championships. 6 April 2010

Tom Haffield and David Roberts are looking forward to a busy year after racing at the British Swimming Championships that finished on Easter Sunday 3 April in Sheffield.

Haffield, representing the City of Cardiff went into the meet having already been pre-selected for the Wales team for the Commonwealth Games in India. He finished third in the 400m Individual medley, behind Roberto Pavoni and Joe Roebuck.

He said: “Considering how I felt, third wasn’t too bad in the final. In the build up to the GB trials, I was able to try out some new things in training, with less pressure on me as I had already been selected for the Commonwealth Games.

“My focus has always been on peaking for the Commonwealths and now it’s important that my coach and I have a solid block of training and more competition, with 8 months until the Games in Delhi.

“I am looking forward to travelling out to a training camp in Florida at the end of this week, hopefully some good weather and then two weeks away in Majorca in May.”

David Roberts was relieved to get back racing in Sheffield after four weeks out with illness. He finished fourth in the 400m Freestyle, setting his target as a time of 5 minutes which he achieved, clocking 5:00.52.

“The 400m was more important to me than the 50m, I have not raced since the World Cup last year, so I just wanted to get out there and hit the times required. To be honest I did travel to Sheffield with some trepidation as an illness has set me back, in the build up to this event.

“I had to battle through kidney stones at the end of February and an infection, which kept me out of action for about 4 weeks, which was not pleasant. Now it’s a relief to be back swimming.

“My targets for the year haven’t changed, the Commonwealths are still really important to me and that elusive Gold. My next competition is the GB Trials for the IPC World Champs in Eindhoven from 16-18 April.”