Swimming: Jet-setting time for backstroker

GOLDEN GIRL: Coach Noel Hardgrave-Booth and Bobbi Gichard. PHOTO/Duncan Brown

Hawke's Bay swimmer Bobbi Gichard knows she will be a "guinea pig" when she competes at the August world championship in Kazan, Russia.

"It's going to be a big learning experience for me but it will also be one for Swimming New Zealand as they have never had a swimmer as young as me go to an open worlds before," 15-year-old Gichard explained.

The Greendale club member qualified for Kazan with her gold medal in the 100m backstroke final at last weekend's New Zealand Open championships in Auckland. She stopped the clock at 1m 01.4s, 0.2 seconds slower than her personal best.

A Napier Girls High School year 11 student, Gichard, who was competing at the open championships for the third time, also won gold in the 200m backstroke final in a personal best time of 2m 14.08s.

"I needed a time around the 2m 12s mark to qualify for the worlds in that event. But at least I know I only need to focus on one event in Russia and I know what I have to improve upon in the 200," Gichard said.

"It's that underwater work and those turns again. I have been improving on my turns ... I'm getting my five kicks off the wall right now and this is better than the three I used to do."

Gichard will aim for a semifinal finish and a personal best time in Kazan.

"It's pretty exciting. If everything works well on that trip it will give me confidence as I get closer to qualifying for next year's Olympics."

Gichard, who will be one of 10 swimmers in the Kiwi team in Russia, has yet to be told what the qualifying times will be for Rio but she knows next year's New Zealand Open Championships will be her final opportunity to qualify.

Rio has been a target for Gichard and her coach for the past seven years, Noel Hardgrave-Booth, since 2011. Hardgrave-Booth, 72, is so confident about her chances he regularly deposits money into his travelling fund so he can make the trip too.

"Bobbi did everything I expected at the Opens ... she has improved out of sight," Hardgrave-Booth, who like Gichard will be a finalist at next month's Hawke's Bay Sports Awards, said.

Gichard is supported by the Jarrod Cunningham Trust and Infinity Foundation.

She was thrilled to receive some tips from two-time Olympic Games gold medallist Danyon Loader during national training squad camps in Auckland.

"Danyon stressed the importance of mental preparation and using your time wisely," Gichard said.

Time for anything else other than swimming will be limited for Gichard between now and the end of the year. In two weeks' time she has the national age group championships in Wellington.

In June, Gichard will compete in the Australian Grand Prix in Townsville and upon her return will go straight into a seven-day national training camp.

July will see her head to Spain with the New Zealand team for another training camp before the trip to Russia.

Two days after her return from Russia, Gichard will tackle the national short course championships in Auckland, where she will attempt to qualify for the junior world championships in Singapore later that month. September will see more stamps entered in her passport, first for the Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa and then the Australian short course championships.

During November and December, she will attend an altitude training camp in Mexico and then the Brazilian long course champs. Naturally she hopes this won't be the last of her trips to Brazil.