In swimming, Cardiff's David Davies, Edinburgh's Kirsty Balfour and
Loughborough's Liam Tancock go in the 1500 metres freestyle, 200m breaststroke and 100m backstroke respectively, and will be joined by  Britain's six relay teams.

 

Meanwhile, for the divers, after qualifying places in every event at the Olympic Games, event will provide the 13-strong squad with their next international challenge as they prepare for Beijing.

The three individual swimmers have already qualified for the Beijing Olympics and will use the Europeans as an indicator of their preparations towards the Games.

Davies will find himself in possibly the most challenging event on the European programme as last year's World Championships medallists face each other yet again.

"It's a great opportunity for me to race against a very strong field containing the world champion in Sawrymowicz from Poland and silver medallist Prilukov of Russia," said Davies who took bronze behind the pair 12 months ago.

"To be able to swim against opposition like that at this stage of the Olympic season is invaluable.

 

"I can measure where I am and what we'll need to focus on as we move towards Beijing.

"My preparations have gone well but it's a busy few weeks ahead with the Europeans, the British Championships where I'll be swimming the 400m freestyle and then the 10km at the World Open Water Championships in Seville."

For coach Ben Titley, part of the British Swimming Leadership Group, it will provide valuable feedback into the readiness of swimmers heading to the Olympics in August.

He said: "This meet provides a good opportunity for the athletes to gauge where they are in terms of their preparations for the Olympic trials or for the Games themselves.

"David, Liam and Kirsty will all be looking for something very different from the Europeans but each faces a tough challenge with a strong field expected.

"Liam and Kirsty have targeted the British Championships later this month as their main event of this part of the season because there are other events they'll be aiming to qualify for the Olympics in while David will be looking to the World Open Water Championships in Seville."

Tancock and Balfour will be able to see how close they are to some of Europe's top swimmers without resting for the event and this will provide early indications of what they will be capable of when fully race prepared.

The relay teams will look to forge a familiarity that will stand up well to scrutiny at the Beijing Games and Eindhoven offers the chance for this to be developed further.

Titley said: "For the relays it's a great opportunity to gain valuable experience in the international arena. It will help to promote that team understanding and to have a hit out just before the British event in Sheffield is a real benefit.

 

"Some countries are using the event as their Olympic selection process so it's bound to be a fast meet while there will be other nations such as ourselves that in the main will be training throughout the championships in readiness for the Olympics."

 

National diving performance director Steve Foley, meanwhile, said he has been impressed with the displays from the squad over the last six months and is anticipating another strong performance in Eindhoven.

He said: "I am looking for the squad to keep up the momentum of the last few weeks and I think if we can do that we will be able to get a few medals at the competition.

"I have been really impressed with the team's morale and confidence, there is a really good feeling around them and that is great to see.

"This event will provide a good test for the athletes, some of them are fatigued and it will be good to see how well they can switch back into competition mode."

There is one change to the squad that competed at the World Cup in Beijing recently and with Peter Waterfield being rested, Southampton's Gareth Jones gets the chance to make an impact in the 10m individual event.

The rest of the British squad will have competed in five international meets in four months and for Foley this was the best way to prepare the squad for the tough Olympic year ahead.

He said: "It was part of our plan to get our athletes to do as many competitions as possible in the lead up to the World Cup.

 

"We strategically planned the events the athletes would take part in.

 

"We wanted to competition harden them.

"They are a relatively young and inexperienced squad and by doing more events they are gaining the experience to give them a good standing on the international stage and it worked really well for us and we got some outstanding results while in Beijing.

"We learnt from the Melbourne World Championships last March; we didn't give the divers much exposure to competitions in the lead up and we noticed the effect on our results over there.

"The whole squad has been showing excellent form over the past few months and for the synchro pairs to have performed so well in Beijing with that pressure on them was fantastic to see.

 

"The pairs have looked strong for some time and I will be looking for them to continue their
consistency here."