Todd has sights on butterfly final place

9:20am Thursday 7th August 2008

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SWIMMER Todd Cooper believes he has what it takes to reach an Olympic final.

The 25-year-old Worcestershire athlete is part of the Great Britain squad hoping to make a big splash in Beijing later this month.

Originally from Kidderminster, Cooper will represent his country in the 100 metres butterfly and 4x100m medley relay events.

He is currently enjoying his best season on record, with personal best times in each discipline as well as the 50m butterfly — a non-Olympic event.

It is the sort of form that has led him to set his sights on progressing through to the final and banish the first-round exit at the 2004 Games in Athens.

“With the Olympics, I shouldn’t really express a need to achieve a certain time,” he said. “In the history of the Games only 13 per cent of the athletes that have gone there have done best times. It’s a case of racing and getting your hand on the wall before them. It’s not about them it’s about concentrating on what I need to do.

“I am going to take each swim as it comes. My initial goal is to qualify for the semi-final and, if I do, it’s to qualify for the final.

“A 51-point time (under 52 seconds) should see me through to the final, assuming it goes to the form guide.”

He added: “In the medley relay, I think we are capable of getting a medal.”

Cooper, who qualified for Beijing after finishing runner-up in the 100m butterfly at the British Championship in Sheffield in April in time of 52.33 seconds, left Kidderminster for Stirling when he was 16.

Nine years on, he is currently studying for a media management and law degree at the University of Stirling, while also putting himself through a gruelling training schedule to get in shape for the Olympic Games.

“It’s going really well,” said Cooper, who won bronze in the 4x100m medley relay at the 2006 European Championships in Budapest.

“It’s been a fantastic season, the best of my life so far. I have done my best times in all three of my events.

“Training is really tough but it has to be difficult, it’s a difficult sport.

“We swim for 24 hours a week and on top of that I do seven or eight hours land work. The preparations are going well and everything is going in the right direction.”

He added: “There’s nothing you can do to prepare yourself for an Olympic Games. The best you can do is go there so you know what it’s going to be like.

“There’s no other competition that you can really compare to the Olympics. Representing your country in the Olympics is the ultimate in our sport.”