Swimming Southland Success

At the completion of the 2007 New Zealand Spring Champions the future of New Zealand Swimming looks to be in good hands.

There were numerous national age records set through out the meet. The most exciting aspect of this was that many all of these swimmers are spread far and wide over the country. We had records being broken by swimmers from Southland Gisbourne and the far north just to name a few.

For our sport to develope on an even playing field across the country these talents need to be nurtured in the environment which has made them successfull. The support needs to be going to the coach of the home programme to enable them grow with their athlete and have the required resources and knowledge base to call upon to develope these talents into Olympic Champions

Now more so than ever there is a need for all coaches across the country to unite and form 1 unified team which is centred around elite performance. I believe the wider the talent is spread the better and the more coaches who are willingly to put their hands up and develope a programme which provides the tools necessary for international success the better.

You only have to look at New Zealand rugby and realise that when the All Blacks have their strongest 15 that Canterbury and Auckland rugby are strong also , with others close behind, the Air New Zealand Cup is a living example of that now.

Small developing provinces are now becoming more accessable . Swim Southland has now set up an emerging High Performance structure. This means an athlete can choose to study down in Southland while training in an elite environment with a support team of physios strength conditioners and nutritionist. All of this will cost you nothing!!! .The area is under populated and over resourced, which bodes well for aspiring elite athletes. The building of New Zealands fiirst indoor velodrome has meant a human performance centre is now in the process of being set up to support these athletes.

If you are interested in Swimming down in Southland for free to pursue your dream  please contact  Jeremy Duncan h2odreams@xtra.co.nz