Great Britain synchronised swimming head coach Katie Dawkins has declared that Jodie Cowie and Genevieve Randall have one eye on Rio 2016 as they look to secure much-needed funding.
Financial support for the sport was cut following London 2012, but there is hope that a good showing from the young duo will help gain some vital cash aid from the British government in the long term.
Cowie and Randall finished in 12th place in this morning's duets qualification free routine, which was the curtain-raiser of Baku 2015, although both still have a number of events to compete in at the inaugural European Games.
"The duet are training five days a week so they are our focus, because obviously we want them to qualify for Rio next year," Dawkins told the Games News Service.
"The aim is to get the funding back via the duet and then hopefully that can spread to the team. That's the only way we are really going to get back on the international stage with the team, because in this sport you need to train 40 hours-plus a week to be able to compete with Russia and China.
"If we get good results here its proving that we're doing it without funding and we deserve some money just to get them back up there on that world stage."
Russian Federation's Valeriya Filenko and Daria Kulagina topped the standings in qualifying, ahead of the Ukraine and Spain.
Daniel Lewis
