World 50m backstroke champion Liam Tancock will be “racing tough” when he goes for Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi on Tuesday.

Tancock, who also revealed he would be cheering on all the home nations in the pool, said he was “really excited” about the Games and is better prepared than he was for the European Championships in August.

He said: “For the Europeans I went in there with a weeks’ rest. The full schedule would have been three or four weeks’ rest, shave your body hair and be fully in race mode.”

The Commonwealth Games are the last chance for England’s swimmers to make any changes in the run-up to the Olympics, added 100m and 200m free swimmer Ross Davenport.

“It’s basically half-way, just another two years to go,” he said. “If you need to make any changes, you need to do it now.”

But, he added, the Commonwealths are also a major event in their own right.

“I think the Commonwealth Games for me are the highlight of my career and what I want to achieve,” Davenport said. “I think it’s the second major games to the Olympics, it’s the second major championships we’ll ever do, it’s great to be a part of it.”

Team-mate James Goddard, 200m back and individual medley, said he was prepared and ready to go. He said the news of problems in the Athletes’ Village in the run up to the Games had not affected him.

“You have got to be in your own zone, your own kind of bubble,” he said.

All three men were sporting beards and Davenport admitted they were a bit competitive about whose was the best.

Goddard claimed victory as the “hairiest member of the team”.

Of course, they will all be clean-shaven by the time they hit the pool next week, when Goddard, along with all of the England swimming team, will be hoping to add a more impressive title.