Moss Burmester checks the times after completing his 200m butterfly semifinal yesterday. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Thousands of hours slogging up and down pools round the globe will boil down to the most important two minutes in Moss Burmester's life today.
New Zealand's first finalist in the Olympic pool in 12 years will line up in lane one for the 200m butterfly final hoping
to win his country's eighth medal in the pool. And he knows he will have to swim his finest race at a meet which has been drenched in world records.
Burmester finished fourth in his semifinal yesterday to be seventh fastest overall, clocking 1min 55.26s - 0.54s quicker than his heat the previous night but still 0.27s outside his personal best, set at the national Olympic trials in March.
Had he matched his PB yesterday, he would have been sixth quickest for a race in which American super fish Michael Phelps is overwhelming favourite to win his fourth gold of the week.
Burmester started well but had to fight to hang on heading for home. Then he had an anxious wait for the second semifinal to discover his fate.
As he watched that race his only thought was "that they'd go slower really".
"I knew it would be touch and go. I knew I had to get third or fourth, no less than that to get through," he said.
Burmester has been troubled by a stomach bug for the past few days but the worst is behind him. The question will be how much it has affected him when he needs to put his foot down today.
Head coach Jan Cameron is confident the 27-year-old from Tauranga has more in him.
"He's a big-timer," she said. "He stood on top of the podium at the worlds [short course] in Manchester this year. You have Phelps who is outstanding and the rest of it will be a bunfight."
American Gil Stovall, who had been tipped for a medal, missed the final, touching just 0.10s slower than Burmester, thus opening silver and bronze positions up.
In 1988 at Seoul, backstroker Paul Kingsman stunned the field by grabbing a bronze from lane one. Burmester is aiming to prove history can repeat.
