SWIMMING, SURF, NOW WATER POLO New challenges, goals for versatile Mark Trembath

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 4

SWIMMING, SURF, NOW WATER POLO New challenges, goals for versatile Mark Trembath

(By

R. M. CAIRNS)

It was as a tiny, blond seven - year - old that Mark Trembath stalled swimming a little more than nine years ago. Now 17 — li is birthday was six weeks ago — he is still searching for New Zealand selection, yet has diversified his aquatic interests with startling results. In his first season of surf swimming. Trembath became a national junior champion; even more astonishingly, after just three weeks as a water polo player, he is in the New Zealand secondary schoolboys' squad with boys who have been plating the sport for as much as eight years. It is a perplexing position for this young man of such all-round swmming talents. He finds life inconceivable without four or four and a half hours swimming training a day. vet it does seem that the highest honours in pool swimming may have just slipped him by. A little bad luck has come in too. Trembath’s birthday was on March 8: had it be»>n a week or so later, he would have qualified for the Australian agegroup championships in Hobart and, in all probability, taken second (200 m and third (tOOtni piacings in the backstroke events. Trembath’s diversification has all happened in the last year, starting with his narrow victory over John Symon in the mid-winter surf race. In

swift succession in his first season of surf lifesaving — and he is still a junior next season — Trembath wen the Canterbury junior surf race and beltman s championships. and both the South Is and and New Zealand junior beltman’s championship.'. There seems no reason why he should not add to these titles for South Brighton next season. and then start nudging the formidable Symon in senior events. just as Symon has elbowed Alan Kindred aside. Young Trembath is enthusiastic about the surf, and not just because he has been successful. ’T’ve made so many new friends at South Brighton — great guys — and there is such an enjoyable social life. In a way. I suppose this is the reason you get for top swimmers giving up: they can’t live a normal kid’s life ”1 think that’s what I feit, but don’t get the impression I want to give up swimming." he said, "ft’s just that after nine years of trying to get to the top and the ultimate, in a New Zealand team, the effort is very tiring and taxing on your mind. The change to include the surf and water polo in my sporting life is a mental break as well as providing me with new goals.’” Trembath also found the atmosphere of a surf club a "great environment”, "You all stick together, and everyone helps out within your own club. Although my surf events are individualistic, there is a greater atmosphere of team sport, against the in-

dividual atmosphere of swimming. In swimming, it is often a matter of trying to beat your club-mates, particularly if the club is as strong as Wharenui (Trimbath’s club); in surf, you usually have all the club behind you.” But Trembath hastens to add that by this he means a surf club generally has only one leading contender for an individual event; a swimming club could have a number which have to sh.'.re its support, Wharenui his club for most of his career — he started with Jellie Park — has a faithful member in Mark Trembath: “They have supported me so well, for so long, and there is no question of which club I would play water polo for.” And on to water polo, in which the Trembath star

has ascended with dizzying speed. He enjoys the game, there is no question: “In a tight spot, the pressure is not only on you and this is quite a relief. “This makes the game easier to enjoy, though there are still certain pressures as you. or anyone in the team could make a vital error.”

His reaction to being chosen? “It came as a great shock; 1 thought I was really lucky. I didn't think I had much hope after the way I'd played in the last couple of games, and after looking at those Wellington guys."

And still in a slightly bewildered manner: “I’m really amazed 1 couldn’t believe they’d actually pick me and 1 only hope I have enough time to get the ball-handling ability and all that.” This was a faintly amusing comment, as it was a source of constant surprise to all at the schoolboys’ tournament that Trembath’s experience should have been limited to less than a month. It was a matter for pleasure, too. that such a gifted swimmer should turn so readily and naturally to the more diverse requirements of water polo.

There were times when his inexperience was glaringly obvious, but Trembath showed there more than a little intelligence for the game in his slight but powerful frame. Winter competition — and the Queen Elizabeth II Park pool could not have come along al a better time for Trembath — should help develop still further his emerging talent. Though he was third in both backstroke events at the national swimming championships late last year — and got his only national gold medal in the 200 m backstroke, in the under-14 grade, in 1971 — Trembath’s best results hint at a future more in the surf and water polo. As a 14-year-old, he was dwarfed by the likes of Symon and John Coutts at Lake Wiritoa, in the Wanganui, yet still won the New Zealand long-distance (three miles) championship. He has won it in the two years since that time; has an imposing record in the Akaroa Harbour swim; and, of course, has those surf successes. All these tend to suggest that his real future may belong in the strength events: fighting rolling waves or tight-marking opponents, rather than the cruel, hundred-of-a-second hand of a stop-w'atch in a pool. Whatever course he chooses — and he confesses that his major, immediate objective has to be to win final selection for the water polo team when it is chosen in October — this cheerful, likeable youngster seems certain to succeed.