WALES’ Jemma Lowe can’t give an answer to the secret of her short course swimming success – but she will bid to call upon it in Poland for the European Championships.

The 21-year-old, a butterfly specialist, has made three major international appearances in a non-Olympic 25m pool and has climbed the podium at every one of them.

Lowe took individual European 200m and world 100m bronze in 2008, while at the latter last year in Dubai, she added a silver to her collection after eight lengths in the pool.

Long course 50m success has also been forthcoming with Lowe winning Commonwealth bronze in 2010 and reaching the final of the 100m and 200m at July’s World Championships.

And, while Lowe struggles to pinpoint the catalyst behind her short course medals, she insists she won’t be doing anything different in the hunt for more in Szczecin, which starts today.

“I am not really sure why I seem to have a lot of success as a short course swimmer. You do

more turns but the turns are actually one of my weak points,” said Lowe, who as part of British

Swimming's Big Splash campaign is urging people to take up swimming for 30 minutes once a week.

“I just have always been able to do short course and when I was younger at Borough of Stockton I always used to train short course as I didn’t have access to a long course pool so

maybe that is it.

“I always try and race to win and training is never the same as what you get from competition, it is good to get some competition behind you.

“And I will just go to the European Short Course Championships and race hard, I will be in hard training and it will be good to get race practice in.

“I enjoy racing the best in Europe and there will be some fast swims put in and it will be good to get some practice.”

Shortly after her outing in Poland Lowe will jet off to spend time in America as March’s all-important Olympic 50m trials at the London Aquatics Centre draw ever closer.

And Lowe is adamant the fact that the Olympic Games themselves are looming larger than ever will be evident across the board in Eastern Europe.

“There were some quite fast swims the last time I went to the European Short Course Championships and the European swimmers go all out and this year will be no different,” she

added.

“It is a major competition leading up to the Olympics and people will step up as they will want to be going to those Games no matter what country they are from.”

British Swimming's Big Splash campaign is supported by principal partner British Gas, and supporting partners Kellogg's and Speedo. For more information on great swimming activities and offers visit www.bigsplash.co.uk

By Ryan Bangs, © Sportsbeat 2011