Moss Burmester, the best performing Kiwi in Melbourne, will compete in the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly heats. Photo / Reuters
There's no rest for New Zealand's leading swimmers who head from the world championships in Australia to Christchurch for the start this week of the national youth and open championships.
Twelve of the world championships team compete at the QE2 Aquatic Centre in the first test of the
controversial format to be used at next year's Beijing Olympics.
Olympic organisers have reversed the normal swimming format to run heats in the evening and semifinals and finals in mornings to fit better with international television requirements.
Swimming New Zealand wants swimmers to have as much opportunity as possible to race under this format before Beijing.
"It's fair to say that the swimming community were not in favour of the format for Beijing and so it's an opportunity for our swimmers to get their minds and bodies around these changes," New Zealand head coach Jan Cameron said. "For some time our swimmers have had to get up and swim fast in the morning at major meets such as the world championships because otherwise they would not get to swim in the evening.
"Over the next 17 months we will be working on changing so they can produce their best in morning swims," she said.
Cameron said she was not expecting too much from the world championship team in Christchurch , after their big campaign in Melbourne.
The championships are an important opportunity for the next echelon of swimmers to put up their hands, she said.
"We need to develop more depth at the top end and ... [if the top young swimmers] want to make the team for Beijing then they need to stake a claim right here this week."
Moss Burmester, the best performing New Zealander in Melbourne, will compete in the heats of the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
New Zealand's other two finalists from the world championships, Dean Kent and Zoe Baker, will also be in action.
The championships continue until Sunday with evening heats from 6pm and semifinals and finals from 9am each morning.
- NZPA
