Olympic hopefuls chase qualification in Absolute Insurance Swim Meet

Olympic hopefuls will get the chance to test their progress towards Beijing qualification when they line- up in the Absolute Insurance Summer Short Course Championships in Waitakere City starting tomorrow.

All of the major Beijing hopes will compete, chasing qualification for next year’s FINA World Short Course Championships in Manchester with organisers again using the inverted Olympic format with heats in the evening and finals in the morning at the West Wave Aquatic Centre. This is the format that will be used for next year’s Beijing Olympics.

Six swimmers have already qualified for Manchester including the Millennium Institute high performance swimmers Moss Burmester, Dean Kent, Helen Norfolk, Melissa Ingram, Corney Swanepoel along with breaststroker Zoe Baker. They qualified at recent World Cup meets in Australia and Europe.

Swimming New Zealand High Performance Coach Jan Cameron is hopeful that at least two more individuals will earn qualification this week.

“We will be looking for some more swimmers to get close to that qualifying standard of 900 FINA points to get to Manchester,” Cameron said.

“Zoe has remained training in England while the other five who have met the qualifying standard will compete but will be training through this meet. Some like Helen Norfolk have the ability to still produce great results in training but I am not expecting this group to be at their peak this week.

“But there are plenty of opportunities for others to put their hands up.”

Cameron said the World Short Course Championship in April is a mixed blessing for New Zealand swimmers.

“We will support our swimmers to go because it is an opportunity for them to race against some of the best and to shine at the top level. The championships are just after our Olympic trials which are the major aim for our swimmers, so this meet has to be factored in to the Olympic preparations for those who qualify for both.”

Cameron said she has been pleased with the performances of those who have already qualified, especially the further development of North Shore’s Ingram who set two New Zealand records in her qualifying performances at the Sydney World Cup.

“There will be some terrific battles this weekend and I am especially looking forward to the sprinters who should hopefully push each other to a qualifying performance.”

Cameron said the only downside was a shoulder injury to outstanding Southland prospect Natalie Wiegersma that will rule her out of the meet.

England-based Cameron Gibson has returned for the championships after missing qualification by just one FINA point in Europe. The Bath University swimmers regained his national 50m record at the England University Championships recently, which had been held by 17-year-old Laser Mt Eden swimmer Orinoco Faamausili-Banse, while West Auckland’s Mark Herring will be pushing both.

Breaststrokers Glenn Snyders (North Shore) and Annabelle Carey (Aquagym, Christchurch) will be chasing individual qualification as will North Shore’s Liz Coster in the 50m and 100m backstroke.

Former Otago swimmer Andrew McMillan (North Shore) will chase qualification in the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly while his team-mate Robert Voss will be pushed by Otago’s Bryn Murphy and Rotorua’s Kane Radford in the 400m. Murphy and Radford, who finished sixth in the Australian 5k open water championship last weekend, will go head-to-head in the 1500m freestyle.

While not expected to qualify, Cameron is also looking forward to the battle of the developing young backstrokers that include Kurt Bassett (Laser Mt Eden), John Gatfield (Watties Swim City), Daniel Bell (West Auckland Aquatics) and John Zulch (North Shore).

The first session of heats start at 6pm on Thursday with finals from 10am through to Sunday.

NOTE: A wrap and finals results will be sent after each morning session, as well as a short wrap after the evening heats programme.