York swimmer Caroline Foot and the British squad will be looking to put their best foot forward next month at the last major championships before the Olympic Games.

GREEK TRIP: Caroline Foot

The FINA World Short Course Championships take place in Athens from March 16 to 19.

Foot, a 34-year-old veteran of two Olympics, she is the most senior member of this Great Britain squad, which also includes world medallists James Hickman and Mark Foster.

She said: "The majority of people who'll be in the Olympic squad will go to Athens next month, although a lot of swimmers are choosing not to go.

"It's a short-course championships at Athens whereas in Sydney it will be long course, so some swimmers are wanting to concentrate only on long course.

"But it's an important competition for me, and it's also a funding opportunity."

Should Foot - a butterfly specialist - do well enough, a grant may be forthcoming from the Lottery.

In the corresponding championships last year, she missed out on qualifying for funding by just 100th of a second.

"I'm not currently funded," she said. "So hopefully I can improve my chances of getting something here."

Foot, who turns 35 during the week in Athens, is keen to get to her third Olympics later this year, after competing at Seoul in 1988 and being women's captain of the British squad at Atlanta 1996.

The Olympic trials take place in July, two months before the selected squad fly out to Australia.

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