Swimming: NZ Olympians to feel the heat at Oceania meet

New Zealand's Olympic swimming squad will turn up the heat on their Athens Olympics campaign at the Oceania championships in Fiji starting on Saturday.

Four of the Olympic team, along with six in line for selection in the relays for Athens, are part of a 41-strong New Zealand squad that will compete in the week-long championships in Suva.

National director of coaching Clive Rushton is not expecting anything like record times from the Olympics squad, who face an exhausting week of heavy training and competition.

"The competition is always good for them, and importantly it's a chance for us to swim outdoors in the sun over 50m, which is the same conditions as we will face in Athens," Rushton said.

"But they are all in very heavy mileage right now. The Athens squad, including the relay swimmers, will be training twice a day, covering 7-8km in each session. On top of that there are morning heats and evening finals.

"They will be in the pool at 5.30 every morning for training, warm-ups and heats from 8am, their second training session is at 3pm with finals from 5pm.

"Right now it's train, eat, sleep and not much else, and therefore obviously I'm not expecting fast times from them."

Rushton said the squad will also be using the championships at the Olympic Pool to experiment with outdoor conditions, including trialing different types of sunscreen.

New Zealand Swimming have sent a powerful squad to the Oceania championships, with the champion North Shore club leading the way with 17 swimmers. Aqua Gym (Canterbury) and Capital (Wellington) have four each.

"We are looking for the next level of our talent pool to really step up at these championships. It's their opportunity to take the next step forward. This is an important international meet for us."

Two of the Athens squad -- Tauranga's Moss Burmester and Canterbury's Annabel Carey -- will not be competing in Fiji.

Burmester is targeting some competition in the United States as his Olympic preparation, while Carey will compete across the Tasman in upcoming meetings, including the Australian Grand Prix series.

The squad for the Oceania championships in Fiji:

Key: (SPTSL Southland, AQGCB Aqua Gym, CAPWN Capital, NSSAK North Shore, GREBP Greerton, WAVL Wave, WHACB Wharenui, WAQAK West Auckland, HPKAK Howick Pakuranga, NEPOT Neptune, WHLAK Waterhole, KWIMN Kiwi, ENTHP Enterprise, JASCB Jasi, ROSAK Roskill)

Richard Adamson (SPTSL), Megan Allan (AQGCB), Kelly Bentley (CAPWN), Nathalie Bernard (NSSAK), Damian Braddock (CAPWN), Sarah Catherwood (NSSAK), Nicola Chellingworth (NSSAK), Shannon Clayton (CAPWN), Kendall Cochrane (GREBP), Mark Cooper (WAVNL), Elizabeth Coster (NSSAK), Kieran Daly (NSSAK), Alison Fitch (NSSAK), Bella Franks (CAPWN), Cameron Gibson (NSSAK), Arjun Haszard (WHACB), Mark Herring (WAQAK), Verity Hicks (HPKCO), Melissa Ingram (NSSAK), Michael Jack (NSSAK), Dean Kent (NSSAK), Rebecca Linton (HPKCO), Ben Labowitch (NSSAK), Hannah McLean (NSSAK), Andrew McMillan (NEPOT), Dylan McNeice (AQGCB), Bryn Murphy (SPTSL), Kelly Newcombe (WAQAK), Helen Norfolk (NSSAK), Matthew Palmer (WAQAK), Ben Pickersgill-Brown (AQGCB), Daniel Ryan (WHLAK), Glenn Snyders (NSSAK), Corney Swanepoel (NSSAK), Te Rina Taite (KWIMW), Scott Talbot-Cameron (NSSAK), Matt Thomas (ENTHP), Dominic Toomey (JASCB), Georgina Toomey (JASCB), Anthony van der Kraay (NSSAK), Lewis Williams (ROSAK), Annaleise Wolt (AQGCB).

Head coach: Donna Bouzaid. Team coaches: Peter Burgeon, Gary Hurring.

- NZPA