Swimming: Youngsters keep heads up

By PETER JESSUP

The Kiwi swim team is well short of dissatisfied with its efforts so far, despite failing to make any finals in the pool.

"People forget this is a new lot, there are no Trent Brays, Danyon Loaders," said assistant coach Jan Cameron.

"The average age is 19 and we have one 16-year-old."

"They're better now than the older lot were when they were at the same age and what we need to do is keep them in the sport - they've got eight to 10 years in them."

That followed a day when four New Zealand swimmers failed to qualify for finals - Jonathan Duncan in the 200m free, Dean Kent in the 400m medley, Scott Talbot-Cameron and Monique Robins in the 100m backstroke.

Steven Ferguson and Helen Norfolk, who were first in the water also failed to make the final of the 100m breaststroke and 400m medley on Saturday.

Cameron, mother of Scott, was in no way despondent.

"We weren't expecting them to make finals, we wanted them to make the top 16.

"They're on their way up and what we were looking for was improvement, what we stressed to them was the importance of improving their times and their rankings.

" They've learnt a lot but they have a long way to go, let's face it."

The long way is to Manchester for the next Commonwealth Games and to Athens for the next Olympics.

Cameron is sure there is talent, commitment and willingness within the team to work towards those goals.

"It's very important we go up against the Krayzelbergs, the Thorpes, the Thompsons. Jenny Thompson (the United States top medal-winning swimmer after Saturday) wasn't any better than these kids two Olympics ago.

"What's important here is that it's an enjoyable expereince for the swimmers and that they want to come back and have another go after honing their skills.

"There are four young men in the team and four young women and they're the best we've got."

The only thing Cameron would change is the numbers.

"The Aussies have been saying they won the relay (men's 4x100m) because they have six or seven swimmers who could have done the race, that there's pressure on the incumbents.

"If we had six or seven swimmers who could do the job we could be the same. It's an exciting time for New Zealand swimming."

Kent, finishing ranked at his age of 21, is best achiever in his specialty 400m medley.

His time of 4m21.81s was a New Zealand record but was 7.55 seconds off the winner's pace in his heat.

Norfolk, 19, swam 4m46.42s in the women's 400m medley, 13s outside winner Yana Klochova's world record gold time, but is now ranked 13th in the world and sixth in the Commonwealth.

Talbot-Cameron went in ranked 34th in the world in the 100m backstroke, swam really well but fluffed his turn to drop to 37th, 3.48s off world record holder Lenny Krayzelburg's time.

Robins, 16, was over-awed by finding herself in the pool with the class of the Olympic world in the 100m backstroke, Cameron said, but came out still ranked 27th, "and I'm sure she'll be better in the 100 free (on Wednesday)."

Duncan, 18, finished fourth in his heat of the 200m free and with a ranking of 32nd in the world, his time 6.71s off the new Olympic record set yesterday by Ian Thorpe.

Ferguson, 20, swam 1m03.06s in the 100m breaststroke and was ranked 27th in the world, also sixth in the Commonwealth.

"They're looking at the other athletes and learning where they have to head," Cameron said.

Along with the positives coming from the team was the raising of the age barrier, with the likes of Thompson and fellow US relay swimmer Dara Torres, the Netherlands Inge De Bruijn and others in their late 20s and early 30s.

"This is a special group, they're going for it. They're all close to where they need to be. Watch the future."