Swimming: Shanghai offers chance to repair battered image

Former enfant terrible Daniel Bell has oodles of talent and an attitude to match. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The fingers have been pointed, the blame has been laid.

The "dysfunctional" high-performance programme has provided a barrier to swimmers attaining their goals and winning medals at major championships.

Chris Ineson, a former Sports Foundation honcho, penned the damning report into Swimming New Zealand, with Jan Cameron's autocratic leadership cast in a harsh light.

The report, which read to a large extent like a survey of disaffected swimmers, certainly kicked the cages of those charged with running the body. Change has been promised.

It's all a bit process-driven and, excuse the pun, a bit dry - so here's a new idea that comes without a hefty consultancy fee: Why not stop the blame game and start training the house down?

The Cameron kerfuffle has effectively given the athletes a free pass for a lack of performance in recent years. From a distance it appears as if the swimmers have expended so much energy running into the warm embrace of the Athletes' Federation that they forgot to go to the pool.

Governance, administration and coaching might provide the bedrock for high-performance sport, but for the public there is only one currency that matters - medals. There was no better evidence than Beijing, where the combined exploits of Valerie Adams and Nick Willis papered over any cracks there might have been in the offices of Athletics New Zealand.

SNZ might need a new structure, a new coaching model, but what it needs most of all is a hero. A Danyon Loader redux would be nice.

We shouldn't expect medals at the Shanghai world championships, with the long-course programme starting tomorrow. It would be nice, however, to see some signs that Kiwi swimmers belong at the deep end of the pool.

Muted performances at the national champs led to a thin team heading for China, but if one or two of them emerge as medal prospects for London the sport will have started to repair an image battered by the Ineson report.

Who will they be?

Former enfant terrible Daniel Bell has oodles of talent and an attitude to match, while his more languid backstroking colleague Gareth Kean attends his first major meeting with coach Gary Hurring at his side. If nothing else they should provide a good marker for each other as they head towards London.

Keep an eye out for Sophia Batchelor. The excitement generated by her national record-setting performances in 100m fly this year, including a best time of 59.48s, suggests SNZ think they might have a special talent on their hands. At 16, she might be too inexperienced to medal at London, but she's also too young to be scarred by the sport's politics.

* Cara Baker yesterday was ninth in the 5km open-water swim at Jinshan, near Shanghai. Earlier she suffered fainting spells before coming 22nd in the Olympic-distance 10km event.

Only the top 10 qualified straight for the 2012 Olympics, so Baker will now have to be first Oceania region swimmer out of the water at a qualifying event in Spain next year.

Baker, 21, finished 7s behind the Swiss winner Swann Oberson, who clocked 1h 39.7s in hot conditions. SNZ open-water manager Philip Rush was thrilled for Baker.

* Hayley Palmer has been forced to withdraw from the world champs.

The 22-year-old suffered swollen glands at the team's final training camp in Hong Kong and after the complaint worsened further medical treatment was sought when they arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday.

After a series of medical tests and consultation with SNZ medical staff in Auckland, it was decided to admit Palmer to hospital in Shanghai.

Kiwis in action

Sophia Batchelor: 100m fly

Dylan Dunlop-Barrett: 400m free

Daniel Bell: 50m fly

Lauren Boyle: 400m free

Glenn Snyders: 100m breast

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