Gold Coast a ray of light for Swimming NZ

‘ Swimming at the Commonwealth Games is a very tough sport.’

EVEN considering the challenges it faces on the global stage, it has been a particularly lean four years for Swimming New Zealand.

But chief executive Steve Johns can see a ray of light on the Gold Coast.

Preparation for April’s Commonwealth Games ramped up this week following the announcement of the team to represent New Zealand.

But while Johns was reluctant to put a number on the medal target, he was ‘‘pretty optimistic’’ about what the young group can deliver.

‘‘We think we can come back with some silverware, absolutely,’’ Johns said. ‘‘Swimming at the Commonwealth Games is a very tough sport, you look at Australia, South Africa, Canada, it’s very, very tough. But we think we’ve got the swimmers who can go over there and perform, and come back with some silverware.’’

Johns is right to be wary of the competition – swimming is traditionally one of the stronger sports at the Commonwealth Games. But the Kiwi team are working off a low bar.

Take away para-swimmer Sophie Pascoe’s two golds at the 2014 Games in Glasgow and New Zealand won just two medals in the pool – a gold and silver by the now-retired Lauren Boyle.

It was even worse at last year’s Rio Olympics where no Kiwi swimmers made an A final, resulting in a funding cut for 2017 by High Performance Sport NZ from $1.3 million to about $900,000. Out of the water, the high performance programme has struggled for stability.

The reduction of the budget forced Swimming NZ to disestablish two coaching roles earlier this year, while it has been through three head coaches since Glasgow.

The latest of those, Jerry Olszewski, resigned due to personal reasons in September – just seven months out from the Games – and has yet to be replaced.

Assistant Mat Woofe has been overseeing operations at the national training centre in Auckland. With the HP strategy currently being reviewed, a full-time appointment is not expected to be made until early next year.

But Johns, himself only a year into the role after moving from Tennis New Zealand, played down the impact Olszewski’s departure has had on the team’s preparations for the Gold Coast.

‘‘There’s only a couple of swimmers in the Commonwealth Games team that were training with Jerry,’’ he said. ‘‘The rest of the swimmers are out around New Zealand, Australia and the world training with their coaches. So it really hasn’t upset things that much at all.’’

Of the 19 athletes selected in the New Zealand aquatics team for the Games, the 12 able-bodied swimmers have an average age of just 21.

While Rio Olympians Bradlee Ashby (individual medley) and Corey Main (backstroke) are the leading medal hopes, Johns believes the relay teams could cause a few surprises.

‘‘They’ve got great talent and speed and I think you could see some good results out of that,’’ Johns said.

‘‘We haven’t put a number on it but we’ll see what happens over the next month or two and how their prep goes. I think closer to the time we’ll get a better feel of how it’s going to go, but we are optimistic.’’

Main, 22, who recently graduated from the University of Florida, made the semis in both the 100m and 200m backstroke at his first Olympics in Rio.

He stepped it up a notch this year, setting two personal bests to make the final of the 100m at the world champs in Budapest.