Swimming struggling in deep end of pool
LAUREN BOYLE and Sophie Pascoe aside, it’s been another forgettable and concerning year for swimming in New Zealand.
And, frustratingly, even Boyle’s year has been hampered.
Last month Fairfax Media revealed the Rio Olympic medal hope has been without a specialist coach for six months and taxpayerfunded entities Swimming New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand are both still struggling to find a solution for the most promising athlete the sport has seen in this country in years.
Crowned the Commonwealth Games 400m freestyle champion, Boyle took herself to Spain in the run-up to Glasgow 2014 in order to prepare properly under world-renowned coach Fred Vergnoux.
The lack of adequate coaching in New Zealand forced Boyle to surrender her world short course title this month without even mounting a challenge, something she was frustrated and disappointed by.
Likewise, the country’s top male freestyle swimmer, Matt Stanley, has also removed himself from training under Swimming NZ’s Auckland-based head coach David Lyles, who was only appointed in May last year.
Just two of New Zealand’s high performance squad even made it to the short course world champion- ships in Doha – American-based sprinter Glenn Snyders and Nathan Capp. Neither swimmer made a final. The situation now has Alex Baumann, chief executive of HPSNZ, admitting Boyle’s Olympic medal chances are on the line and the wider elite programme of swimming requires assessment.
In better news, Paralympic swimmer Pascoe continues to power her way from meet to meet. The six-time Paralympic champion claimed two gold medals at Glasgow, in the disability classifi- cation events of SB9 and SB10, and continues to set herself for further Paralympic success at Rio 2016.
Pascoe is also building a legacy as the greatest Paralympic athlete in New Zealand sporting history.
In 2015, the end of July brings the world long course championships in Kazan, Russia, where almost the sole New Zealand focus will be on the form of Boyle in a major indicator a year from the 2016 Olympics.