Swimmers aim to better Games standard

Press, 10 August 1985, Page 80

Swimmers aim to better Games standard

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The achievement of times close to, or inside, the Commonwealth Games standards are the targets of two Christchurch swimmers, Grant Forbes and Patil Tozer, who left yesterday for the Pan Pacific Games in Tokyo from August 15 to 18.

The pair, who are teammates at the Christchurch Swimming Club, have attacked their training with renewed vigour in the last few months after returning encouraging times at the Bank of New Zealand summer and winter national championships in March and July.

Tozer was the surprise of the national winter championships in Wellington. He beat two more highly favoured swimmers — Brent Foster and Paul Kingsman — in the 200 m individual medley, and then swam six seconds faster than he had managed before in the 200 m freestyle. His outstanding times in those championships earned him late inclusion in the New Zealand team to compete in the World University Games in Kobe a week

after the Pan Pacific competition. “The University Games are a bonus. That will give me two top competitions to try and reduce my times. If anything,, the university competition will be stronger than the Pan Pacific competition.”

Tozer established his first New Zealand record at the national winter championships, and also won his first national open title. He confessed that he had a “real taste” for competition now. He had won national agegroup titles previously but they were at the age of 14 and 16. Tozer is now 21.

In Japan he will be “rapt” if he can record, in 50m pools, the times he returned in a 25m pool at the winter championships — 2min 8.07 s in the medley, and Imin 54.81 s in the 200 m freestyle. The medley time would qualify him for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games next year and earn him his first New Zealand long-course record. The 200 m medley record is 2min 10.45, held by Barry Salisbury, and set four years ago.

Forbes, a breaststroke swimmer, will compete in his two specialist events in Tokyo. He has best times of Imin 5.8 s for 100 m breaststroke and 2min 24.1 s for 200 m. He said he would be happy if he could better those times at this stage of his preparation. To qualify for the Commonwealth Games he has to achieve times of Imin 6.75 s and 2min 255. Forbes and Tozer will return to New Zealand briefly before heading to Sydney for more competition at the Australian winter championships at the end of the month. From Sydney the pair will travel to Canberra for an international meeting with swimmers from Australia, Sweden, China, and Canada. The team to compete in the Pan Pacific championships is one of the most mature to leave New Zealand. Of the six men in the team only two are under 20. “The public still has the view that all swimmers are teenagers,” said Tozer. “That is not the case now. The average age of the Olympic finalists was in the early twenties.”