HARROGATE’S Sophie Taylor is part of an 11-strong British swimming squad that will compete at the World Short-Course Championships in Doha that start later today.

Taylor, who was one of the stars of this summer’s Commonwealth Games as she won gold in the 100m breaststroke and silver as part of the 4x100m medley relay squad, is likely to compete in all three individual breaststroke events as a select British team looks to build on its Glasgow success.

The British squad boasts ten Commonwealth and six European titles, and features the likes of Commonwealth and European champions Jazz Carlin, Fran Halsall and Adam Peaty as well as defending World Short-Course champion Hannah Miley.

The short-course season straddles the end of this year and the start of 2015, and is a valuable warm up ahead of the next long-course season which will culminate in the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

“We’ve had a good year with some strong performances and I’m looking forward to finishing it off at these short course World Championships,” said British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss.

“The team’s main focus will be to practice the processes we’ve targeted ahead of next year. As we continue to improve as a nation this has to be our motivation rather than the outcome.

“It isn’t a benchmark event for us but I think any opportunity to race against the best in the world shouldn’t be wasted. We will use it as a stepping stone to next year’s long course World Championships and will specifically look at our starts, turns and finishes to see where improvements can be made.”

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SOUTH SHIELDS Winter Olympian Amanda Lightfoot produced one of the best ever performances by a British biathlete as the sport’s winter programme began with a mixed relay in Ostersund last weekend.

Lightfoot, who represented Britain at this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, went off on the first leg of the four-person relay, and was as high as 11th after the second shoot.

She eventually handed over to team-mate Nerys Jones in 15th position, an excellent performance given that most of the world’s leading biathletes were competing.

The British team eventually finished well down the order after Jones picked up an eight-minute relay for shooting from an incorrect position, but Lightfoot’s display nevertheless augurs well for the rest of the winter season.