Swimming: Fly star ready to make his mark

Corney Swanepoel

With the Olympic rings blazing on his hip, Corney Swanepoel is an advocate of the one step at a time approach.

The 19-year-old, who competes in one of the more technically challenging strokes, the butterfly, has his sights set on a gold medal in Beijing in three years time - hence the reason for the tattoo.

But before that Swanepoel lists standing on the podium at the Commonwealth Games "more than once" and winning a place in the finals of the world long course championship in Montreal later this month as his immediate goals.

"You have got to go through all the steps to get the experience," Swanepoel said.

"Very few people burst on to the scene and become instant world champions. It is just getting that experience, taking one step at a time and doing what you gotta do."

Whether he achieves his world championship goal will be known in two weeks time when Swanepoel and 17 other New Zealand swimmers line up in Montreal.

A member of the biggest contingent New Zealand has sent to the world championships, Swanepoel goes into the event ranked first in the 50m butterfly and third in 100m butterfly.

Although the Northern Hemisphere has swum mainly short courses this season, Swanepoel doesn't see his rankings as an added pressure more as an opportunity.

Theoretically his times should be good enough to make both finals but with highly rated Americans Michael Phelps and Ian Crocker in the 100m field, Swanepoel admits it can be a case of mind over matter.

"Phelps is still young and he is already a legend," Swanepoel said.

"But he is only human and can be taken down. I try not to get intimidated by him."

New Zealand coach Jan Cameron said Swanepoel has "progressed enormously" since the Athens Olympics where he was 11th in the 100m fly.

"The fly is a very tough field," she said. "You have got Phelps who is an outstanding Olympic and world champion already and Ian Crocker who is the world No 1. But that's okay. It gives us something to chase.

"Corney has improved vastly ... he still has a long way to go but we are optimistic about him improving and positioning himself well."

Only three New Zealanders have won medals at the long course world championships - Garry Hurring, Anthony Mosse and Danyon Loader, who picked up three medals in 1994 in Rome. While medals are possibly still a little way off for this team, making the finals is a realistic goal for Swanepoel, medley swimmers Dean Kent and Helen Norfolk, backstroker Helen McLean and freestyler/flyer Moss Burmester.

"The people who were in the top 16 in Athens, those people are in the ready position to take on the finals," Cameron said.

"Our goals are to move from our positions in Athens. You don't generally jump from 20th to first. It is usually a series of steps and we are taking those steps."

World long course championship

* Montreal, July 25-31

* New Zealand team: Moss Burmester, Liz Coster, Alison Fitch, Cameron Gibson, Melissa Ingram, Dean Kent, Hannah McLean, Helen Norfolk, Corney Swanepoel, Glenn Snyders, Scott Talbot-Cameron, Te Rina Taite, Nichola Chellingworth (all North Shore); Annabelle Carey (Aquagym, Christchurch), Kelly Bentley (Capital, Wellington), Zoe Baker, Georgina Toomey (Jasi, Christchurch), Lauren Boyle (West Auckland Aquatics).