Wenden returns to the action

Press, 27 December 1980, Page 14

Wenden returns to the action

By

RAY CAIRNS

There can be little question that in the minds of those around in 1974, at the time of the Christchurch Commonwealth Games, one of the most memorable moment was outside the competition. After Michael Wenden had won his third successive Games 100 m freestyle title, at the age of 24, a presentation plaque, recognising his feat, was tendered to Wenden by the then-president of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association, Mr lan Russell.

Wenden’s response was t > reach inside the front of his track-suit trousers, to pull out his Australian togs, and to toss them into the crowd: his own special way of announcing his retirement.

Nearly seven years nave marched on since Wenden pulled the curtain across a glittering career which included the Mexico 100 m freestyle title as well. But on Queensland’s sunny. Gold Coast, the former great champion is just embarking on another career which would well see him return to swimming prominence as a coach.

For nearly four years after his retirement — and Wenden was true to his

Christchiirch word — he worked with a Sydney bank, before seizing an opportunity to run the Palm Beach-Currumbin Sports Complex. It is now, of course, the Michael Wenden Swim, Squash and Tennis Centre, just over the road from Salk Oval, where the New Zealand cricketers last

week beat . Queensland Country. That business enterprise is ticking over quite nicely but if there ife a lama duck in this complex run by a great swimmer, it is the swimming side. "All the pools round • suffer from a principal problem” explained Wenden. “If there is bad weather, there is .no business; if there is good weather, there’s still no business because they al! go to the beach. So pools on the Coast are reallythere as a service for Learn to Swim.” But things have looked up; for just the week he was talking of his swimming problems, a heated 25m indoor pool was opened 10'tm up the road — and across the New South Wales border — at

Tweed Heads. Wenden has secured that lease as well, and now he is looking forv’,.rd to moving into the competitive area. “Till now, I’ve only been able to work on stroke technique development, yet one is always coming across heaps of kids with a ton of potential. But I haven’t

been able to exploit that with only two months in summer to work on them.” Not that work has been slack for Wenden and his wife, a professional coach of considerable experience. “The pool's been relatively full with school groups, visting coaching groups.” Indeed, as we talked, Laurie Lawrence — the man who coached Stephen Holland to 13 world records ■— was halfway through a fortnight at the pool with 55 youngsters. "Those kids are here twice a day, every day, and doing 7-Bkm every session.” •

Wenden mentioned that the squash club based on his complex contains a big percentage of New Zealanders, and had just won the Gold Coast Squash Association’s points score

trophy. He contributed to the victory himself, "in the middle grades, using the game as a basic means of maintaining a minimum level of fitness.’ Why not swim for fitness? “Well, any ex-swimmer faces a common problem, and me perhaps more so. The swimming technique

is usually so good that a minimum effort is . required — so that means so much more time in the pool and away from work. "In fact,"Wenden went on, “1 was hopless in surf swimming; my stroke was too finely balanced and the slightest bit of rough and tumble threw me off.”

"Hopeless” Wenden may have been in the pool, and

now not even a memory to-the young champions of today.. But with the new foal and incentive he aces in his business, the name of Michael Wenden may yet again reverberate in the championship pools of the world.