Swimming: Rising star in fast lane and accelerating

By JULIE ASH

After sailing up the rankings at the world championships in Japan, Dean Kent has his sights set on higher honours.

Despite suffering from a cold, the North Shore swimmer was the best New Zealand performer in Fukuoka.

He was 10th in the 400m individual medley, an improvement of six places on his rankings after the Sydney Olympics.

In the 200m individual medley he was 11th (23rd after Sydney), breaking his national record twice along the way.

His times in both events rank him in the top five in the Commonwealth.

He was battling nerves as well as the cold.

"My first event was the 200m butterfly where I did a personal best, even though I had to blow my nose right before the start. To do a personal best was pretty cool and it gave me a bit of confidence."

In the 200m individual medley, he swam 2m 03.11s in the heats and achieved his goal of breaking the New Zealand record he set at the national championships in April.

He broke it again in the semi-final, finishing in 2m 02.85s.

"I was pleased, but that was always what I wanted to do. It was one of my goals going into the event. You know that you have to race hard if you want to get into the semis, and I was going hard out."

He said drug testing was a concern at the championships.

Without a comprehensive testing programme, there would always be doubts about performances.

"It is a shame for the clean athletes, but that is just the way it is. All the Australian team were drug-tested before the world champs, both through blood and urine, but I am not sure if any other countries do that."

He said the Australian success was no great surprise.

"They have got a lot more money to throw around and a lot more people than we do."

Not everyone in the Australian team swam well - "you just didn't see their failures".

"The New Zealand team swam well, considering there were only four of us."

But Kent said that did not mean New Zealand lacked depth. Several swimmers came close to or made the world-championships qualifying standards, but missed the deadline.

"There are a whole bunch that are close to that level. There could be 15 to 20 going to the Commonwealth Games, which I would love to see because there is nothing better than having a good team atmosphere."

The 22-year-old first made the New Zealand team in 1998.

Since then he has competed in various World Cup events, the world shortcourse championships, the Oceania championships and the big one, the Olympic Games.

He said the world championships would have been intimidating without the Olympic experience.

"We race against the Australians all the time and are good mates with the entire team.

"It gets easier and easier all the time, as my coach Jan Cameron says competing internationally is money in the bank."

Kent allowed himself just one day off after the world championships before returning to his 11-sessions-a-week training regime.

His next event is the New Zealand shortcourse championships next month and then the Commonwealth Games trials.

"I am well under the qualifying times in both events, but I want to make sure that I am improving my personal bests all the time so that when the Commonwealth Games come around I know I can be competitive and secure a podium finish."