Top swimmers on display

Press, 4 March 1980, Page 30

Top swimmers on display

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Some of the better-known names of New Zealand swimming will not be among the starters at the national championships in Dunedin next week, but competitors such as Gary Hurring, Paul Rowe,Barry Salisbury, Rebecca Perrott, and Melanie Jdiies will give lustre to the carnival. Entries for the championships are dowh more than 100. on last year, but that is not surprising because teams of 13 each from Queensland and Victoria attended that carnival. -This year’s entry of 454, is well clear of the 1978 entry of 350, which included divers*. This year’s total excludes divers, who now hold a separate championship. The main reason for the increase, however, can be

attributed to the abolition of qualifying times, effective for the first time last year. Notable among the absentees from the championships is Monique Rodahi, ironically the only swimmer to date to have beaten an Olympic target time. A dispute whether she should swim for Norway or New Zealand at the Moscow Olympics has forced her to return to Norway in an endeavour to meet its qualifying times. lan Bullock- and Brett Naylor, both members of the Edmonton Commonwealth Games team, will not return from university in lowa. Nicolas Harriman, the holder of both the New Zealand men’s breaststroke records, is in a similar position. However, this will not preclude them from qualifying for the New Zealand team.

They are busy with examinations at this time of year and can. return next month in an attempt to qualify at the final selection trial on May 18. Susan Burton, who was at Houston University, gave up a scholarship early this year to throw all her efforts into earning a nomination for the Olympics. She will, return for the championships and stands a very good chance of qualifying in ■ the 200 m and 400 m freestyle. Rochelle Inkster,, the: former Canterbury sprint freestyler, now- living in Sydney, is apparently not within striking distance of the Moscow times and is not among the entrants. How many swimmers will achieve Olympic targets next week is hard to calculate. Hurring, Rowe, Perrott,

and Miss Jones should. Then there are several borderline cases, and it is traditional iri a Games year for at least one surprise qualifier. An interesting entry is Jocelyn Thomas, listed as being from the United States.- She is a New Zealander who has been living in America, but is now. back in New Zealand. She has swum very close to the 400 m and , 800 m freestyle targets. Martin Craig, who was'at university- in lowa with Bullock and Naylor, has returned' to Dunedin. His best hope of selection is in the 400 m medley. He needs a 13.0 s improvement but that is not impossible as Mark Treffers showed when he won the gold medal in the event, at the 1974 Commonwealth Games.