Teddington Swimming Club head coach Ed Sinclair is targeting only steady improvement in 2013, writes Nicholas Godden.
 

Sinclair, who represented Great Britain at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and at Athens four years later, has been head coach at Teddington for almost three years.
 

In 2012, 11 swimmers from the club competed at national level – a massive improvement on five and one the two previous years.
 

The club also qualified for the A final of the London Division in December for the second consecutive year – a first for Teddington.
 

“Qualifying for the A final for a second year in a row, in an extremely competitive league, was a phenomenal achievement and a credit to the swimmers,” said Sinclair.
 

Sinclair oversaw a top to bottom restructuring of the club in 2011 to increase emphasis on swimmer development and give swimmers the chance to reach their potential.
 

“Last year a girl won a place at Loughborough University,” Sinclair explained.
 

“That was fantastic because that was one of my big goals for the club, to take a swimmer all the way through the club and go off and swim at university.
 

“That was my long-term plan, which is coming to fruition.”
 

With the standard of competition constantly improving, Sinclair is wary of setting too many goals for the club, but he remains eager to continue the excellent work of the last 30 months.
 

Sinclair said: “In Britain we have very hard national qualifying times so I tend to stay away from targets.
 

“I’ve got some goals in my head, but we are still very much developing,
 

“The goals for this year are to carry on what we’re doing and trying to expand the club a little bit.”