NZ swimmers show a lot of promise
April 2nd, 2008, 11:17 pm Hobbies News
It wasnt easy for them.
Unusually, heats were in the evening and finals in the morning.
This was to mirror the strange Beijing Olympics scheduling that accommodates big-spending American television. The New Zealand swimmers faced cut-throat pressure. They had to turn up and do the qualifying times, or they didnt get a plane ticket to Beijing.
Its good in theory to put these sorts of demands on swimmers, because the Olympics are hardly a walk in the park.
The Australians came unstuck when they did this in their 2004 trials. Superfish Ian Thorpe fell into the water and was disqualified before the 400m freestyle, at which he was world champion.
Australian swimming officials then performed embarrassing cartwheels to get Thorpedo selected.
Happily, there were no such dramas at the New Zealand trials.
There was a lot of talk %26mdash; too much %26mdash; about the revolutionary space-age swimsuit, which was apparently responsible for the record times. Several swimmers rightly scoffed at such suggestions.
The suits were good, they said, but the records were coming because of all the torrid training in recent months.
The old guard are still swimming well. Durable individual medley expert Helen Norfolk became the first New Zealand swimmer to qualify for three Olympics. Three days later another medley expert, Dean Kent, also became a triple Olympian.
Moss Burmester was outstanding in the 200m butterfly, while North Shore team-mate Corney Swanepoel shaded him in the 100m event.
Backstrokers Liz Coster and Melissa Ingram were on fire, and so was emerging breaststroke star Glenn Snyders.
Coach Jan Cameron will be taking a quality squad to Beijing.
Kent will be three months shy of 30 in Beijing and according to my calculations, will become New Zealands oldest Olympic swimming representative.
The previous oldest was probably Aucklander Malcolm Champion, who was nearly 29 when he competed for Australasia at Stockholm in 1912. Champion won a gold medal that year, so Kent will be hoping thats an omen. Kent has already competed at two Olympics and two Commonwealth Games.
In Auckland he won his 11th successive national 400m individual medley title, tipping 1960s great Dave Gerrard out of the record books. Gerrard won 10 consecutive 220 yards butterfly titles.
In swimming, a generation lasts about five years, so Kents longevity has been incredible.
Kent gives the New Zealand team great leadership, because of his work ethic and his outlook.
n recent years, Kent has spoken with commonsense on matters ranging from sports funding to the morality of competing in China.
Two heroes of the Athens Olympics, Sarah Ulmer and Hamish Carter, will be part of the New Zealand team support crew for this years Olympics.
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