National performance director Michael Scott has been encouraged by the performances of the men at the British Gas Swimming Championships in Sheffield. With the exception of Liam Tancock and David Davies, it is the women who have been prominent in recent years thanks to the success of the likes of Rebecca Adlington, Joanne Jackson, Gemma Spofforth, Francesca Halsall and Keri-Anne Payne.
However, Scott believes there were encouraging signs at the competition at Ponds Forge which ended last night, pointing to Adam Brown and Roberto Pavoni, who both stepped up to claim national titles. The British Swimming national performance director said: "These things tend to be cyclical, I've seen it in Australia.
"I'm sure you're starting to see the trend start to reverse. "Whilst the girls are stronger in terms of world rankings I'm starting to see some improvement in the men. "I think the men are rising to the challenge."
World 50metres backstroke champion Tancock swam the fastest 100m backstroke in history in a textile suit when he blasted home in 52.85 seconds on Friday, much to the delight of Scott.
"I think the best performance was Liam Tancock," said Scott.
"The females raised the bar and our job is to make the males go with them and we art starting to see that.
"The men's performances this week have been good."
Double Olympic champion Adlington believes the women have enjoyed success after they gained momentum as a group and she also feels the men are at the forefront.
She said: "We're just catching up the boys. "Everybody thinks the boys aren't very good but we've just caught them up from the years they have been ahead. "It is very difficult when they have got someone like Michael Phelps to race against - he is in a world of his own.
"With the girls I think there is so much depth but there is Liam and a lot of guys coming through as well." There were some outstanding performances in Sheffield, which served as the first stage of qualification for the Commonwealth Games as well as selection to the British European Championship team.
As well as Tancock, fellow backstroker Lizzie Simmonds produced the second fastest 200m backstroke ever seen in textiles, second only to five-time Olympic champion Krisztina Egerszegi in 2mins 06.79secs as she collected two titles.
World 100m freestyle silver medallist Halsall claimed three titles as did Adlington, who showed a return to the sort of form that brought her two Olympic crowns. The priority this year will be the Commonwealths in Delhi in October although Scott admits to a dilemma.
He said: "The Europeans is a world-class meet but with the world calendar it is nowadays and how full it is, (head coach) Dennis' (Pursley) position is that we don't want to peak for one event, we don't want to peak too soon. "If we peak too soon we might have sub-average results in two events. "It's a hard one because the Europeans is a fantastic meet and Europe in my opinion is where swimming is going ahead right now."
He added: "I guess it comes down to cultural significance to the home countries. The Commonwealth Games is a significant event in Commonwealth countries: in Australia Commonwealth champions are held up there beside the Olympic champions."