Cycling coach Furber takes over disability swimming role

British Swimming has named Chris Furber as its new Disability National Performance Director.

Furber comes to the sport from British Cycling, where he was the lead coach for the GB Paralympic team who topped the medal table in Beijing and London.

He takes over from John Atkinson, who stepped down after the London Paralympics to take up a new role with Swimming Canada.

"This is an incredibly exciting move for me," said Furber.

"I love disability sport and the opportunity to lead the sport of swimming, which has 148 opportunities to win Paralympic gold, is an incredible one that I could not ignore.

"I've been at British Cycling for 13 years and, while I'm sad to be leaving, I believe the opportunity with British Swimming is ideally suited. I feel the impact I can make will help the team to move up the medal table while building on the good work done by the previous performance director."

Furber, who has led the team to 42 Paralympic medals since joining British Cycling in 2000, is due to start his new role in May and British Swimming will also appoint a head coach to provide additional strength and depth to the programme.

Chief executive David Sparkes added: "Chris has been a critical factor in the success of the Paralympic cycling team, which embraced many of the characteristics of the successful Olympic cycling team.

"I'm sure he will bring some interesting and exciting ideas from cycling which will drive the future success of the Paralympic swimming team and build on the foundations laid by successive NPDs."

The British team won 39 medals in the pool in London in 2012, including seven golds, out of the GB total of 120.

The next event for the team is the British International Disability Swimming Championships in Sheffield, which will act as the trials event for the IPC World Championships, which take place in Canada from 11-17 August.