Olympic swimmers dip toes back into competitive waters
New Zealand’s Beijing Olympic swimmers take their first competitive dip back into competition in the national summer championships starting in Christchurch on Thursday.
It forms a litmus test not only for the Olympians but the next echelon to check their progress towards next year’s major goal of qualification for the FINA World Championships in Rome, which is the key stepping stone to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The three-day meet at the QE2 Leisure Centre is the first for former national coach Jan Cameron in her new role as General Manager, Performance and Pathways.
She is looking for a step up from those swimmers who performed well in the recent FINA Short Course World Cup meets and others within reach of the elite level.
Cameron said that the Beijing swimmers will be training through this meet while a number of younger swimmers, who will compete in the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and Australian Youth Olympics next month, will be rested for peak performances this week.
“This week is the first hit out for the Beijing Olympic team and we are not expecting too much from them,” Cameron said. “But it’s a chance to see just where they are at and what they have to work on.
“We have a number of our best young swimmers preparing for competition next month who will be looking for good performances this week before they move into taper for the international events.”
Southland’s Natalie Wiegersma and West Auckland’s Michael Jack, impressive at the World Cup meets, are two swimmers Cameron believes can step up to the next level.
There will be some exciting battles expected over the championship including the women’s sprints where Australian world record holder Marieke Guehrer will provide a huge test for North Shore’s Hayley Palmer and Amaka Guessler, who has recently moved from Nelson and Canterbury to be trained by national coach Thomas Ansorg
The women’s 200m backstroke and freestyle will feature the in-form Melissa Ingram, after her outstanding international form in the recent world cup series where she finished in the top-10 swimmers overall and set three new national records. She will come up against fellow Olympian Natasha Hind and North Shore’s Penelope Marshall.
The men’s sprints will feature the Olympic relay trio of Cameron Gibson, Mark Herring and William Benson with Orinocco Faamausili-Banse bypassing the meet in favour of the long course Auckland Championships for his preparation for the Junior Pan Pacs.
The ebullient Daniel Bell (West Auckland) will have a further chance to display his wide range of sprint skills including a battle with legend Dean Kent, who has retired from international competition, over the individual medley.
Moss Burmester will make his return to competition after a layoff while fellow SNZ High Performance swimmer Glenn Snyders is in excellent training form for the breaststroke competition.
The championships run from Thursday to Saturday with heats from 9am and finals from 6pm at theQE2 Leisure Centre.