KEY POINTS:
BEIJING - When the Olympic swim squad assembled for their team photo, Moss Burmester was perfectly placed front and centre.
As the squad's top-ranked swimmer, Burmester cannot escape being the focal point.
But the unpalatable truth is that he may be the only one to make a Beijing
final.
Even then, a slot in the 200m butterfly medal chase might be the best the Commonwealth and world short course champion can realistically hope for.
That would be no mean feat, considering he would be the first New Zealander in an Olympic medal race since 1996 - when Danyon Loader powered to 200m-400m freestyle golds.
Burmester, 27, is almost guaranteed to have to cope with the sport's greatest current swimmer, American Michael Phelps inside the `Water Cube' at Beijing.
Phelps is striving to eclipse the achievement of Mark Spitz at Munich in 1972 by winning eight golds, one more than his compatriot.
Phelps left Athens four years ago weighed down with a half dozen and in the intervening four years has appeared waterproof.
Phelps, 23, clocked one minute 53.31 seconds for the 200m butterfly at the Missouri Grand Prix in Columbia in February.
At the 2007 world championships in Melbourne he timed 1:52.09, to win one of his seven golds with a staggering 3sec to spare.
Burmester was fourth, 0.13sec out of third place, with a then-personal best of 1:55.35.
His new mark is 1:54.99, recorded in the more austere surroundings of New Zealand's Olympic trials in March, so obviously he has a lot of ground to make up.
However, Burmester's time measures up favourably with those posted by the other swimmers likely to figure in the final.
A mere 0.83sec separates the second-fastest time - recorded by Greek Ioannis Drymonakos (1:54.16) - and Burmester, who owns the seventh fastest mark in 2008, meaning a medal may not be out of the equation.
In between a strict training regimen a relaxed Burmester has been keeping a close eye on his rivals' results via the web.
He was also privileged to study Phelps out of competition when invited to the United States' training base in Colorado last year.
It was a surprisingly soothing experience.
"One of the main things is they're not doing anything different to us, there was nothing in training we didn't know about."
He also gained an vague insight into how Phelps operates, though as rivals, understandably no firm friendship developed.
Does he know what makes Phelps, or have any insights on how he handles the pressure?
"Probably not," Burmester confessed.
"When you get to this sort of level you put on your poker face when you're around other people. You don't let people in to what's going on in your head.
"Out of the pool he's a normal guy. I just see him as another person. He eats, sleeps and poops like everyone else."
But what sets Phelps apart is the tremendous workload he has taken on in a second bid to create a new watermark in the pool.
By the time the 200m butterfly final rolls around Phelps could be striving for his fourth gold of the meet - providing he has already secured the 400m individual medley, 4 x 100m freestyle and 200m freestyle titles.
While there will be no evading the hype surrounding Phelps, Burmester was not buying part into it.
"You not even giving yourself a chance if you put him on a pedestal like that," he said.
Trouble is, a pedestal, in the shape of a medal dais, is precisely where Phelps is headed.
- NZPA
