Gary Hurring prepares for Olympic trial

Press, 27 March 1980, Page 38

Gary Hurring prepares for Olympic trial

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The shoulder injury' that impeded Gary Hurring at the New Zealand swimming championships’ in Dunedin 12 days ago has not troubled him since his return, to Auckland. His;, coach and father, Lincoln, said last evening that Hurring had trained every day since his return without any ill effects and he was hoping for an uninterrupted run up to the final Olympic trial in Christchurch on May 17. Mr Hurring said there was no question of Gary giving up swimming because of the injury. “He is training as keen as ever and really wants to qualify for Mpscow. We’re get-

ting a bit sick of people asking if he’s giving up.” • “Gary was upset by the pressure on him at the nationals. He was finding it unbearable. He is an individual type of person and hates to feel owned by officials or the media. “Since the nationals we have taken every possible precaution to see that the ■injury doesn’t flare up again. We have trained every day and adapted our workouts. We now use one that is short, and concentrated. It is not the long grinding type of workout that many coaches use.”

The session consists of a long warm-un and then hard training. But because

Hurring Is covering less distance his father thinks he may have to step up to three sessions a day. Hurring is training almost exclusively in

backstroke although his father said he is “getting a bit fed up” with the reptition.

He is trying to stay away from freestyle because he believes this has been partly responsible for the injury. That view was confirmed by the former New Zealand butterfly swimmer, Dr Dave Ger-

rard, who examined Hurring in Dunedin. “Butterfly is definitely out and breaststroke is risky too, so it looks like Gary will become a very specialised young man.”

This will mean that Hurring will have to drop, temporarily at least, the 100 m freestyle and 200 m individual medley, two events in • which he has been successful in New Zealand. There had been a suggestion that Hurring move to Dunedin to train where he would be able to use

the facilities at the Otago University physical education faculty. But Mr Hurring said emphatically that Gary would not be moving south.

“Lloyd Drake (the doctor who has looked after the ailments of athletes John Walker and Dick Quax) has been looking after Gary for some time. We have been following the advice, given us> and at the end of each session we apply ice packs to the shoulder.

“We got a lot of advice in Dunedin we didn’t need to. It got a bit heavy after a while. People were saying Gary' needs vitamin pills or he should rub

something or other on his chest before he goes to bed.

“Since we’ve been back in Auckland we have had four phone calls from Universities in the United States offering places on their teams..

“They won’t be accepted but I envy them. They have a physiotherapist at the pool who would be able to work on Gary' at the end of each session. He would get the best of attention.

“In Auckland we have to travel half-way' across town to get treatment,” said Mr Hurring.

“All we want now is a good run up to the May 17 trial.”