Davies will contest the 1500m and 10k open water at Beijing

Olympic 1500m bronze medallist David Davies says his decison to double up with the 10k open water for Beijing will boost his chances in both events.

The 23-year-old Welshman secured a place in the new 10k Olympic discipline with second place at the World Championships in Seville last week.

"Now I've got two events to do which is nice because it takes the pressure off each other," Davies told BBC Wales.

"I'm not going into Beijing with all my eggs in one basket."

Although Davies says he remains a 1500m freestyle specialist at heart, he told the Back Page programme that he was warming to the new challenges of the 10k discipline.

Davies was pipped to first by just 0.3 of a second by Russian Vladimir Dyatchnin in Seville, having won his first race at that distance in Cape Town last February.

"It's quite a nice little distraction for me, the Olympic Games is what it's all about so to do it in another event as well is amazing," Davies said.

"I'm still very much a 1500m swimmer because that's what I train for, all my training in the pool is towards 1500 swimming.

"But because I do so much work, and the work is right and there's a lot of quality and endurance in it, I think I'm capable of swimming the 10k as well."

Although there is plenty of expectation on Davies as one of Britain's leading medal hopes in Beijing, he warned that the 1500m will be even more keenly contested than when he won his bronze in the Athens Games.

"There's no pressure on my part, I know the 1500 will be really hard to get a medal in," Davies added.

"It's moved on a lot from Athens, there's a lot of swimmers who could probably go in there and win it on the day.

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"It's going to be a really tough event and a tough atmosphere as well, Beijing is going to be a really demanding place to compete in.

"Anything can happen in the 10k, it's such a dramatic event, in one second you can go from the front of the pack to the back of it and been swum over by 20 swimmers!

"There's absolutely no pressure on me, I'm just glad to be there competing in both events and enjoying the Olympic experience."

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