Swimming: All eyes on swimmers in wake of report

New Zealand's Melissa Ingram. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's 14-strong world championships swimming team knows it will be a struggle to earn the medals and finals places needed to redeem the sport's credibility in the wake of the Ineson report. The open water events start in Shanghai on Tuesday with pool events starting Sunday.

The report was released a month ago and a five-member high performance governance committee has been set up to address the issues it raised - no tangible change is in evidence yet.

A key area the HPGC was asked to address was the future of the high performance programme and future of general manager of performance and pathways Jan Cameron. The report also suggests a head coach or campaign manager be appointed to direct the team at the London Olympics.

Sparc have agreed to award SNZ 75 per cent or $1.01 million of their $1.35 million allocated funding for 2011. Sparc are not expecting too many decisions to be made until the end of September but require the HPGC to act on the review's recommendations.

The swimmers competing at the world championship can go some way to addressing the funding issue with finals appearances and, ambitiously, podium places. While it would be a surprise, a number of athletes are still contenders.

During the world championship qualification period (March 1, 2010-June 30, 2011) six New Zealand athletes set 'A' times in Olympic events - Hayley Palmer (50m freestyle, 21st in the world), Lauren Boyle (400m free, 17th, 800m free, 34th), Daniel Bell (100m backstroke, 26th), Gareth Kean (200m back, 13th), Melissa Ingram (200m back, 19th), Glenn Snyders (100m breaststroke, 18th).

Those world rankings could translate to better places at the championships because only two swimmers from each country are allowed in each event.

One argument suggests it might have been prudent in SNZ's current funding-strapped times to send those six athletes only plus any potential relay swimmers, but New Zealand Swimmers Association boss Helen Norfolk says that approach could produce further stagnation in the high performance programme.

"Sending other younger athletes to the world championships the year before the Olympics is still a great move because it gains them valuable experience and the potential to get an 'A' qualifying spot next year," she said. "It definitely helps their development."

Six of the best

Lauren Boyle (23) 400m and 800m freestyle: Has been coached by Teri McKeever, the US Olympic women's team coach at the University of California,for a number of years. Is now back in New Zealand under Mark Regan. Boyle is the only Kiwi athlete to set Olympic qualifying times - which started from March 1.

Daniel Bell (21) 100m backstroke: Bell's infamous behaviour precedes him but he has the potential to be a fine athlete. In his favourite 100m backstroke he beat multiple US Olympic medallist Ryan Lochte at the Santa Clara Invitational in California, although that discipline is not Lochte's speciality.

Gareth Kean (19) 200m backstroke: Coached by former backstroking legend Gary Hurring, Kean has made steady progress in the last year to rank 13th in the world in the qualification period. He will be ranked 11th once two extra Americans are taken out of the potential entrants.

Glenn Snyders (24) 100m breaststroke: Snyders has the potential to make at least the semifinals after a year when he has worked tirelessly out of the pool.

Melissa Ingram (26) 200m backstroke: Like Bell, Ingram performed solidly at the Santa Clara meet in her specialist event, finishing fourth. Should be a semifinal contender.

Hayley Palmer (21) 50m freestyle: Made the bold move to travel to the US to train in January where she is coached by Randy Reese, whose pedigree includes taking 41 swimmers to 35 Olympic medals, mainly in the 1980s.

Full team - Pool: Sophia Batchelor, Daniel Bell, Lauren Boyle, Dylan Dunlop-Barrett, Amaka Gessler, Tash Hind, Melissa Ingram, Gareth Kean, Penelope Marshall, Hayley Palmer, Glenn Snyders, Matt Stanley, Natalie Wiegersma.

Open Water: Cara Baker, Kane Radford.