Talbot takes up Swimming New Zealand coaching post

Double Olympian and Swimming New Zealand’s coach of the year, Scott Talbot, will take up a coaching role at their High Performance Centre at the Millennium Institute on Auckland’s North Shore.



Talbot will work with SNZ’s head coach Mark Regan and coach Thomas Ansorg to guide the High Performance Programme towards success at the 2012 London Olympics and beyond.



Talbot represented New Zealand at the Sydney and Athens Olympics in an international career that included captaining the New Zealand team at the World University Games in Seoul.



He moved into fulltime coaching after retiring from competition following the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and quickly moved through the ranks at North Shore Swimming, taking up the role as performance coach three years ago. He has achieved excellent success, culminating in five of his squad on the team for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and a further five on other SNZ international teams this year.



Talbot, currently on SPARC’s Coach Accelerator Scholarship, will continue to be based at Millennium Institute, after an agreement with North Shore Swimming, the Millennium Institute and SNZ.



“I am pleased to be able to have Scott join us directly in the Swimming New Zealand High Performance team,” said Swimming New Zealand General Manager Performance, Jan Cameron.



“Developing our coaching talent is equally important as our talent in the pool and Scott is a real asset to the sport. A number of overseas programmes had approached Scott, so this appointment is important for our High Performance Programme.”



Talbot is one of the coaches on the team for New Delhi, and joins the SNZ team after nearly two decades with North Shore as a swimmer and coach.