Swimming: Olympic goal in mind for world champs squad

By JULIE ASH

Building for the future is the aim of the New Zealand swim team heading to the world championships in Japan.

Four pool and four open water swimmers will compete in the 9th FINA world championships in Fukuoka from July 16 to 29.

Dean Kent, Helen Norfolk, Liz Van Welie and Vivienne Rignall will race in the long course pool events. Rebecca Linton, Kate Brookes-Peterson, Scott Shepard and Carl Gordon will compete in the open water championships. North Shore's Jan Cameron is the coach.

National swim coach Brett Naylor said the world championships would be as tough as the Olympics.

"These guys need experience at this level. The big thing for them is making the Olympics, which is only three years away, but we need to get overseas and race top swimmers."

Kent (North Shore) will compete in the 200m and 400m individual medley; Norfolk (Christchurch), the 200m and 400m individual medley and 200m backstroke; Van Welie (Dunedin), the 200m butterfly; and German-based Rignall, the 50m freestyle.

The open swimmers will all compete in 5km and 10km events.

"Open water swimming is now an Olympic sport. That's why we are investing in these swimmers," Naylor said.

"Carl was eighth and Scott 10th in the last world championships in the 10km. So they are going in with good rankings, but it just depends how it goes. You have got the wind and chops and other things to contend with."

Naylor expects the best Kiwi performance to come from Rignall.

"Vivienne is ranked in the top nine going into the meeting, and she has been training very hard."

All four pool swimmers competed in last year's Olympic Games. Many finished in the top 20 in their events.

"For these guys it is too early for them to make the top eight, in fact it is unlikely for us," Naylor said. "The top 16 to 20 in the world is what we are aiming for, and improving our Olympic times."

He said most of the European athletes did not peak until their late 20s.

"Most of our swimmers are in their late teens. These guys should be around for another five years and our goal is to have them ready for the next Olympics."

He said competing overseas was vital for their development, but it does come at a cost.

"We don't fund them to go overseas. We ask them to do what they have to do, and some people are able to get there with help from their parents and so on, but some aren't."

Naylor said the benefits of competing internationally were apparent at the recent Mare Nostrum European series, at which a team of seven New Zealand swimmers competed alongside the likes of Ian Thorpe and Michael Klim.

"They improved as the series went on. In the past, Danyon Loader, Anna Simcic and Phillippa Langrell have all benefited from swimming in such meetings."

At present, Australia are on top of the world, and Danyon Loader's double gold medal-winning performance at the 1996 Atlanta Games is a distant memory.

The open swim team leave on July 11 and the pool swimmers on July 19.