Top swim team aiming for ‘hands on wall’

Press, 13 December 1989, Page 80

Top swim team aiming for ‘hands on wall’

From

KEVIN TUTTY

■ in Auckland - “Hands on the wall” is a phrase that Hilton 1 ißroWn, the coach of the Roskill swim team )n Auckland has been drumming into his squad members for the last few weeks. Het jjas been urging his squad — arguably, the/strongest at the New Zealand championships, starting at the West Auckland Swimming Centre today — to think .about reaching the finishing wall first and not to w6rry unduly about the Commonwealth Games qualifying times. jMr Brown, who Is also the head coach of the Games team, believes that with times uppermost in their minds, swimmers place unnecessary pressure on themselves and run the risk of performing below their true capability. ■ ‘*l have told my squad that if they get thAir hands on the wall first or second, or in softie' cases third, they stand a good chance of selection.” Because the competition in every event was likely to be more intense than in any previous New Zealand championship, Mr Brown said that good times would follow. He recalls time trials held in 1982 for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games: “They were a disaster because swimmers were thinking about times and not racing. We only had four swimmers qualify at that meeting.” He does not want to see a repeat of that situation over the next four days, and is quietly hopeful it will not eventuate because swimmers will have to pay more attention to their opposition and racing them. fr.' Mr Brown has in his squad the Olympic bronze medallists, Anthony Mosse and Paul Kingsman, and two others who have already been selected for the Games, Monique Rodahl and Brent Foster. • He is not expecting best times from those

swimmers this week. They have had light training sessions in the last few days, but are not as fully prepared as they will be by the time of the Games. -:Mr Brown was delighted with times recorded by Mosse and Kingsman last week. Mosse swam 2min 0.20 s to*: win' a 200 m butterfly race in the United States, and returned home to break a New Zealand , short course Record. Kingsman also broke; a Short course record. . ’> l ' The “hands oh the wall” motto will apply x to Mosse at the Games said Mr Brown. Mosse would like to better the Imin 57.27 s he recorded to win in Edinburgh, but the gold medal in January will be the top priority. “It won’t be easy, Tom Ponting and Marcel Gery (two Canadians) will be tough, and so will Martin Roberts from Australia.” Rainer Goltzsche, the coach of the Wharenui squad from Christchurch, is concerned that some of his swimmers will not be as well prepared as they might be for the championships. He has a younger squad and many of them have finished school examinations in recent weeks. He said that two of his squad, whom he felt had a chance of being included in the Games team, would probably miss selection because they had chosen to concentrate on their examinations. “But that was their choice and I respect it.” • There will be a tinge of sadness around the pool today. Yesterday many of the older swimmers in Auckland for the championships attended the funeral of Brett Austin, who holds the New Zealand record for 100 m breaststroke set at the Los Angeles Olympics. ..... Austin, a popular member of the New Zealand teams in which he was a member, died on Saturday, aged 30, after a short illness. Richard Lockhart, a member of the Auckland Games team, and Mosse K both spoke at Austin’s funeral. *