Corney Swanepoel: Olympic diary

From the start of this week we eased off slightly in training in preparation for the Grand Prix meet in Brisbane yesterday and today.

We started our travel to Brisbane on Wednesday at 1.20pm with a flight to Sydney ... or so we thought. It took us about 45 minutes to get on to the plane and then we were delayed for an hour.

In Sydney we waited for another two hours before we flew to Brisbane.

We arrived in the Sunshine State to be met by another member of the team who flew direct from Auckland. Having travelled for just three hours he was still fresh and energetic - the complete opposite to the rest of us.

If it hadn't been for the exhausting trip, we would have been bouncing off the walls because the relay teams were confirmed, which was awesome news for all of us involved in the three relay teams.

As excited as we were, we collapsed on our beds and fell asleep shortly after getting to the hotel at 9.30pm.

We woke on Thursday refreshed and ready to show these Aussies up.

After a light breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, yoghurt and muesli, a croissant, Coco Pops and orange juice, we made our way to the pool for a training session.

It felt good to have a swim after the long travel, loosen up and keep in the swing of things. We all felt a lot better after training and made for the hotel just in time for a second breakfast.

We had a lot of time to kill that day. Some of the fellas went to watch a movie.

Scott [Talbot-Cameron] and I just wandered around the mall for a while then went back to our room. He started playing his guitar he had brought along for the trip.

I subjected myself to the travesty that is Australian television.

Just as we were starting to really relax we went back to the pool for our afternoon training session.

The meet started yesterday. There was a good crowd supporting their favourite swimmers.

The times at this meet aren't expected to be too fast from either us or the Australian Olympic team because we are all in the hard work cycle of our training.

Having said that, there were some great swims from Ben Labowitch and Liz Coster, who are both in the relay teams for the Games, and Hannah McLean.

Ben will be doing the breaststroke leg of the men's 4x100m medley relay in which I will swim butterfly.

My only race is today and I'm feeling good and excited for it.

The time isn't what I'm concerned about at this meet. It's more about swimming the race right, doing the small details well. I want to do the time next month in Athens - only then it will be much faster.

* Corney Swanepoel is in the New Zealand swimming team for the Olympics.