Many swimmers improved times at nationals

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 21

Many swimmers improved times at nationals

Bv

KEVIN TUTTY

The inability of any New Zealand swimmer to reach a Moscow Olympics qualifying time at the New Zealand championships in Dunedin suggested the four-day meet-, ing was a failure. But the picture of despondency was not as bad as it appeared and certainty New Zealand swimming is not in the doldrums as one leading coach said during the championships. The Canterbury contingent was an example of the real success of the championships. There were 24 swimmers from the province at Dunedin and only four failed to improve on at least one personal best time.

In the last couple of years there has been a large drop-off of swimmers who obviously decided they had enough after failing to qualify for the New Zealand team for the Edmonton Games and other tours.

As a consequence the age of the swimmers at Dunedin ■ was slightly

younger and coaches are confident New Zealand will have a very strong team for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in two years. • But there were aspects of the national championships that were disappointing. The finals session on the first night of the championships was deathly slow and did nothing to help the swimmers who often had to stand behind their blocks for several minutes while presentations were organised. Thankfully the presentation improved for _ the three remaining sessions but it still lacked zip. One selector said at the end of the first night: “What .we need is a brass band at the poolside to get the blood moving.” It would not have done any harm.

One occasion when 'there was life was during the relays. In these events swimmers like Rebecca Perrott and Paul Rowe had targets to achieve which were absent in their individual events.

In the women’s medley relay, Miss Perrott swam an incredible butterfly leg, catching up 10m on the leading team, Canterbury. Rowe achieved a similarly remarkable feat in the freestyle leg of the men’s medley relay, whittling back a lead of two metres on Auckland on the last leg.

Rowe was the outstanding member of the Canterbury team. He won the 100 and 200 m butterfly titles and threw away what could have been a third title in the 100 m freestyle in a gamble.

He chose to swim butterfly in the final in an attempt on the Moscow qualifying time. His coach. Bill Robertson, said later was probably a mistake.

Rowe should have swum in the consolation final where he would have

been on level terms . with the swimmers and would not have been affected by a heavy wash at the 50m turn as he was in the championship final where the leading swimmers were ahead of him. Rowe lost a couple of metres in the heavy chop at the turn.

It was a great pity Monique Rodahl chose to swim in Norway rather than at Dunedin. The clash between her and Melanie Jones would almost certainly have seen both qualify for Moscow. It is ironic that Miss Rodahi’s trip was probably in vain. The Olympic rules state quite clearly that once a competitor has represented one country, he or she cannot represent another.

Rickie Binning continued her gradual progression to world ranking when she won the 100 m breaststroke in record time. She clipped 0.5 s off her old time, a sizeable amount, and is slowly drawing nearer the Olympic target of Imin 14.05’.

She was not so fortunate in the 200 m event, however. She failed to make a break on the rest of the field and had no real sprint left when challenged by Rebecca Tohill (Otago). It was a valuable lesson in race judgment, though, for this talented young swimmer.

Canterbury dominated the men’s backstroke finals with Gavin Dixon, Grant Gillard, Kara Taumaunu and Gary Mason filling the minor placings behind Gan' Hurring in the 100 m event; and in the 200 m it was Dixon. Taumaunu and Gillard who took the first three places after Hurring withdrew.

Taumaunu has made dramatic improvement this year and, a 14-year-old, his times are already several seconds better than Hurring was doing at the same age. Mason has had a season interrupted with, injury

and that showed in the 200 m where he lacked the conditioning to reach the final. But he too has enormous potential.

In spite of the pressures of university study, both Gillard and Dixon are keen to continue swimming. Their decision will maintain the already high standard of men’s backstroke.

Jennifer Queen, a young freestyler at her first national championships, did very well to win places in the 100, 200 and 400 m finals. Her 100 m time of Imin 2.5 s suggests she will be a sprinter but as she grows older and stronger her basic speed will be valuable over the longer distances and that might be where her future lies.

Dene Robinson has been steadily whittling away his freestyle times during the season and he reached a zenith at Dunedin. His performances improved with each swim concluding with a 5.0 s improvement for the silver medal in the 400 m freestyle.

In the same event Chris Eliis finished fourth with a similar personal improvement, and over 200 m he is moving towards the two minute barrier.

Michael Smith, the most earnest of trainers 1 and competitors, made a valiant attempt to keep with Rowe in the 200 m butterfly but faltered over the last 50m. Still, his time was a 1.2 s improvement on his previous best and later he surprised with an excellent 400 m medley swim to win the bronze medal.

Gillard, also rarely a medley swimmer, was just centimetres behind.

Brian Honeybone and Malcolm Pearce, two of the oldest members of the Canterbury team did not have the success of some of their team-mates but were more than a match for many of the enthusiastic youngsters they met. Grant Forbes had a very poor age-group championships in February because Of illness. But there was

no sign of it at Dunedin. He swam a mature race to win the 100 m breaststroke, taking another second off his best time. In the 200 m he could not contend with the power of Brett Austin (Auckland) and finished second. But again his time was a personal best.

Tracy Turnbull, who had not trained seriously for the championships, had the distinction of winning the 200 m freestyle consolation final, but was not in the race for the medals' in her specialist breaststroke events.'

After an average swim in the 100 m breaststroke, Kim Dewar improved in the 200 m to finish fourth. Susan Willis and Nicola Chambers, two young butterfly swimmers, benefit-

ted from their first national open meeting as did Tui McArthur, a young backstroker. Fiona James and Sonia O’Connell reduced their best, times in their respective events and so did

Colin Davis, a lesserknown backstroker. Grego.ry Cadigan failed to improve his backstroke times, but he had made such spectacular progress earlier in the season that he could be excused.