Elfin build no bar to success for top backstroke swimmer

Press, 27 May 1978, Page 12

Elfin build no bar to success for top backstroke swimmer

By

KEVIN TUTTY

When you stand beside Melanie Jones you wonder how she can be among the top 25 women swimmers in the world over 200 m backstroke. Where her 157 cm (sft 2in), 47kg (7st 51b) frame gets the strength to propel her through the water in Statin 20.8 s is intriguing. The manager of the West German swimming team that made a short visit to New Zealand in January was similarly puzzled. In fact, he went as far as telling Miss Jones she was too small ever to become a top backstroker. Since then Miss Jones has set about proving how absolutely wrong the West German manager was. At the New Zealand championships at Queen Elizabeth II Park in March she catapaulted into world rankings with her spectacular 2min 20.8 s 200 m swim.

The time qualified her for the Edmonton Commonwealth Games, and the world championships in West Berlin, a week later.

Now Miss Jones is eagerly awaiting her trip to the world championships and the chance to meet again the West German and inform him she is representing New Zealand in the backstroke events.

By the time the world championships are held in the last week of August Miss Jones hopes to have shaved another 3.8 s off her best 200 m time.

While her feats are a surprise to some, they are not to her coach at the Wharenui club, Clive Power. “She is a strong swimmer. This results from a combination of things, including a beautiful technique and an excellent power-to-weight ratio.

"Her joints are not over flexible. There are other swimmers in the squad who are more flexible. But Melanie has an ability to pick up the water which many backstrokers don’t have."'

In spite of all these points in her favour, there is one bar to her improving her backstroke. It is a relatively slow time for the 100 m at 1 min 8.65. But with Mr Power, Miss Jones is working frantically to lower her 100 m time. “Melanie knows that unless she gets her basic speed down her 200 m time won’t improve much more. We are aiming at a time of around 1 min 6.0 s for the 100 m at Edmonton,” said Mr Power. “In the last month before Edmonton she will have to concentrate on speed work. I have spoken to Bob Mclntyre (the coach of the swimming teams at Edmonton and West Berlin) about her programme in that final month.”

Backstroke has always been Miss Jones’s forte, but she expresses a preference for the 100 m rather than the 200 m — the event in which she has enjoyed her success.

“I like the 100 m backstroke because it is shorter, but I can’t seem to get going over the distance. I have swum only about half a dozen 200 m events in top level competition.” With so little experience over the longer event behind her, Miss Jones’s potential over 200 m is hard to gauge, except to say it is considerable. In the last year she has begun to vary her events and found she is a useful butterfly swimmer. She has a best time of Imin 10.9 sec for the 100 m, and 2min 29.0 sec for the 200 m. The latter is an especially good time for a girl of Miss Jones’s slight build.

Although she “hates” medley, she also has a commendable time for the 200 m medley, at 2min 34.7 sec.

Miss Jones is at present in the midst of a heavy build-up for Edmonton and West Berlin. She is cov-

ering 50km a week, most of it in backstroke repeats. There are also daily weight training sessions.

The intensive training requires 5.30 a.m. starts* something Miss Jones is\ not fond of, particularly now winter has arrived.

“I hate getting up in the mornings, but when you’ve something to train for it makes the effort worth while.”

It is not only the pleasures of sleeping in on wintry mornings that training upsets. Miss Jones finds she has little opportunity to get out with friends. “It makes me mad to have to say ‘no’ when friends ring up, but it compensates when you can get a trip overseas.” The choice of training or socialising is entirely up to Miss Jones. There is no pressure from her parents. “They leave the decisions up to me.” A fourth form pupil at Middleton Grange school,

Miss Jones is able to combine without great difficulty her schoolwork and swim training although piano lessons have been substituted this term for training. Her swimming career started eight years ago when her parents took her to Wharenui to learn to swim. “Dad had a boat and mum insisted that we learned to swim before we went out in it.”

It is only in the last two years that Melanie’s career has jumped ahead, however. Last year was her first national agegroup championship, and also her first open charm pionship.

Her times were excellent for a 13-year-old. She was fourth in the 200 m backstroke at the open nationals in 2min 28.75, and her best time for the 100 m backstroke that season was Imin 10.95.

In the next 12 months her advance was remark-

able. She reduced her W and 200 m backstrokr times by 3.0 s and B.os spectively.

All this was achieves with a minimum of top competiton. She made a short tour to Australia in 1976 with the Wharenui club, and swam in the 100 m backstroke at the international carnival in Auckland in January. That is the sum total of her international experience.

Typical of her bright, easy going nature, Miss Jones is unperturbed by the fact her' first full international competition will be the Commonwealth and world games. She will have the benefit of swimming in the Santa Clara international invitation carnival at the end of June — a major meeting. At 14 Miss Jones is the “baby” of the 103-strong Commonwealth Games team, but she is not the shortest member of the team.

“Precious McKenzie is shorter than me,” Miss Jones is happy to point out.