Swimming: Van Welie has world champs in sights

Swimming an additional 15km a week represents a huge extra commitment from leading New Zealand swimmer Liz van Welie.

Coach Duncan Laing has stepped up the training of the Commonwealth Games silver medallist to a new level as she prepares for the world championships in Barcelona next month.

Van Welie, 23, covers 100km in her 11 sessions in the pool each week and the average session has increased from 6km to 8km. This means an extra three hours in the water a week.

"Mr Laing has put me on the same type of distance programme that Danyon Loader used before Atlanta in 1996," van Welie said. "I'm handling it better than I thought I could."

The hardest part of the programme was to cope mentally with being in the water so long.

Van Welie, who won silver in the 400m individual medley in Manchester last year in a New Zealand record 4min 44.56s, does much of the swimming by herself because no other swimmer in the Laing squad is training so hard.

Van Welie leaves Dunedin today to train with Laing in Tuscon, Arizona. Ricky Laing, the son of the coach, is married to an American and has a physiotherapy practice in that city.

Van Welie chose Arizona, with temperatures close to 40C, to get used to the heat before the world championships at Barcelona.

Moana Pool in Dunedin is about to be renovated and she also wanted to train in a 50m pool.

Van Welie will be in Tuscon until July 1, when she will join the New Zealand team at a training camp in Germany and also have a competition from July 11 to 13.

The team leave for Barcelona on July 15 and the world championships will be held from July 20 to 27.

Van Welie's main events at Barcelona will be the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly (best time 2m 11.62s) and the 4x200m freestyle relay.

She will also contest two events from the 400m freestyle, 200m individual medley and 100m butterfly as minor events.

"My goal is to swim personal best times at Barcelona," van Welie said.

"My training is a bit different and I will be keen to see how it works out.

"But it should set me up well for the Athens Olympics."

Van Welie hopes to sit her University of Otago marketing examinations overseas on July 13 and July 20.

She will miss a big amount of her next semester while preparing for the world championships and will probably study for her next marketing papers extramurally, through Massey University. She enjoys her studies.

"It's good for a change, takes my mind off swimming, and helps to break the day up.

"It stops me thinking only about swimming for 24 hours each day and puts balance into my life."

Van Welie finds it easier competing internationally than she did at first.

"I enjoy it much more. I have international friends and find it less intimidating."

She has found that the other international swimmers are just like herself and also have fears and doubts about their swimming.

"It gives me more confidence. If I have done the work I can be just as good as them."

Clive Rushton, the national coaching director, rates van Welie highly.

"I had the privilege of being with her at the Commonwealth Games last year and find Liz a tremendous competitor," he said.

"She is a very professional swimmer, very dedicated and focused, and she's producing the goods."


- NZPA