By David

Regular Swimwatch readers will be aware of the ease with which Swimming New Zealand ignore inconvenient rules.

Remember when they overturned a vote of the Directors and appointed Butler and Wrightson to the Board because Miskimmin and his hired help demanded obedience. It is hard to imagine the rules that were broken on that occasion. Rules of meeting procedure, rules of democracy and the organization’s constitution were put to one side; were treated with contempt.

I did hear that Swimming New Zealand think nothing of taking funds for an approved purpose to pay non-approved expenses. That is unconstitutional and in some circumstances may be illegal.

Changing the minutes of an Annual Meeting is hardly ethical behaviour. Any sporting code would class that as a red card offence. But not Swimming New Zealand. They just waited for the next Annual Meeting to correct the deception and moved on as though nothing unusual had occurred.

The decision to form a High Performance unit in Wellington slap bang in the middle of a full scale review of the sport is a certain breech of the rules of good corporate behaviour. In authorising the new venture, Butler, Byrne and Miskimmin approved corporate cheating. Does that make them cheats?

The regular reappointment of Ross Butler is a breach of Clause 10 of the Swimming New Zealand Constitution. Ross Butler has been reappointed for three, two year periods. Clause 10 only allows for one additional two year period. You would imagine that would disqualify Butler from membership. Not in Swimming New Zealand it doesn’t.

Swimming New Zealand has failed to file its annual accounts in 2005, 2008 and 2010? The law is clear. Here is what it says –   “Every society shall deliver annually to the Registrar, a statement containing the following particulars: (a) The income and expenditure of the society (b) The assets and liabilities of the society (c) All mortgages, charges, and securities. In three of the past five years Mike Byrne’s Swimming New Zealand has failed in its statutory duty to provide the Registrar with a set of accounts.

While it would be possible to list a further dozen examples of Swimming New Zealand’s dismissal of fair play rules, I’m sure you get the idea. Butler, Byrne and Miskimmin lead an organization that has treated the rule of law with contempt. That’s why I always felt it ironic that Mike Byrne used to claim the Swimming New Zealand Constitution prevented him doing his job. When you don’t give a damn about the rules, why should the Constitution hold you back?

With this history it will not surprise you to hear that I was stunned to hear a story today of Swimming New Zealand demanding absolute compliance with the rules of swimming. Was it possible that this organization could be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it came to enforcing the organization’s rules? Or perhaps the key to enforcement is convenience.

Here is what happened.

Sometime last year, I’m told it was in July, there was a swim meet at the Greerton Pool in the Bay of Plenty. The meet was well attended and provision was made for disabled swimmers to take part with able bodied participants. That’s called mainstreaming and is a policy that has my 100% support. Australia has encouraged mainstreaming in swimming for years. New Zealand arrived late but now, in Auckland at least, has many disabled competitors competing successfully in predominantly able bodied events. There is no doubt that every sports person should have an inherent right to participate in swimming in the most inclusive setting possible. And this I am told is what the Greerton Meet was trying to do.

Attending to the rules at the meet were two Swimming New Zealand national officials. The meet began with a men’s breaststroke event. Two disabled athletes were competing in the first heat. It was swum and, I am told, much to everyone’s surprise both the disabled competitors were disqualified. Swimming New Zealand’s officials were asked to explain.

The first disabled competitor was disqualified, they said, for breeching Rule SW 7.6. This says, “At each turn and at the finish of the race, the touch shall be made with both hands simultaneously at, above, or below the water level.” The disabled competitor had not touched with “both hands”. He had touched the wall with only one hand; a fact that is hardly surprising. The young man only had one arm.

The second disabled competitor was disqualified for violating Rule SW 7.4. This says, “All movements of the legs shall be simultaneous and on the same horizontal plane without alternating movement.” The disabled competitor was certainly guilty of violating rule 7.4. He was also an amputee. He only had one leg.

An appeal was made to Swimming New Zealand for leniency. Given the lack of an arm and a leg couldn’t some compassion be shown and the athletes reinstated. But Swimming New Zealand’s officials stood firm. Dispensation could only be considered if the meet organizers had printed on their programme a note that made it clear that disabled athletes were taking part and their performances were subject to modified FINA rules. Because this had not been done Swimming New Zealand expected the one armed swimmer to touch with both hands – and the swimmer with one leg to kick with both feet. The disqualifications could not be changed.

As each day goes by the Mike Byrne, Peter Miskimmin and Ross Butler led organization becomes increasingly irrelevant. They ban me from their National Championships because I dare to suggest that disqualifying amputees is the behaviour of sick minds. They ride rough shod over rule after rule in their own corporate lives while they beat up on members of the disabled community who want to take part in the sport of swimming. On the evidence of this story it is these men who are a danger to competitors in swimming and should be banned from the Olympic Trials.

Swimming New Zealand is a world of inequality; the haves and the have nots; the privileged and the deprived; the rich and the poor; Robin Hood and the Sherriff of Nottingham. The Wellington office of Swimming New Zealand spends thousands of dollars spreading “One Team” propaganda and millions on promoting avarice and division. There should be no misunderstanding; the New Zealand Olympic Trials are about far more than 34 swimming races. There is more at stake than selection for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Swimming New Zealand has never been “One Team”. Swimming New Zealand is two teams; their team and the rest of us. The gulf between the two is as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon; certainly as stark as anything that will separate national teams at the Olympic Games.

The New Zealand Olympic Trial meet is a competition of ideologies. Good will compete against bad. Private enterprise coached athletes will contest each event with the fat cats from the state funded socialist empire at Auckland’s Millennium Institute. Those of us who have done it ourselves, who have paid our own bills, will contest the championships against those who have had government welfare checks pay for their swimming training, their gym membership, their massage, their medical bills and their lives. Swimmers who have bought their own uniforms and paid for their entry fees into the championship will pit their skills with those who have had the New Zealand taxpayer meet those costs.

I was disappointed to learn that Gary Hurring had sold out and joined the empire. The men who taught Gary to swim and employed him in his early coaching career would never have made that decision. They valued character, independence and strength. However, Gary has made his choice. So now there will be three “socialist” state coaches preparing swimmers for the New Zealand Olympic Trials, Hurring, Talbot-Cameron and Regan. Hell bent on beating them should be every other coach in the country.

The only way to bring about change is to beat the socialist swimmers in a swimming pool. Perhaps then Byrne and Butler will wake up to the reality that private enterprise competition does it best. Perhaps then the fortune being spent on the cosseted and secluded Millennium few will be distributed across the country according to ability and performance. Perhaps then a good swimmer can be financially rewarded for elite performance wherever they live. Perhaps then the blatant poaching of good New Zealand swimmers will stop. Perhaps then the system will be fair.

Byrne and Butler will fight reform all the way. The last thing they want is the rewards for effort being distributed to private enterprise coaches. They want to be in control of an empire. They want to “own” New Zealand’s best swimmers and three average swim coaches and call them their Aqua Blacks team. The opium of ownership is their drug of choice. They have no idea what’s involved in winning a swimming race. They know plenty about accumulating power and status. They have spent a life time doing just that.

Beating the state funded elite will not be easy. For ten years the best talent in the country has been pillaged by the national organisation. Using our money Swimming New Zealand has cherry picked the most talented. Very, very few of our country’s most talented were allowed to flourish in their natural environments, but were instead taken under the state’s wing and made to conform. Using our money Swimming New Zealand has laid waste to our sport. Using our money Swimming New Zealand has killed internal competition. Thank God for those determined few, especially those from Invercargill, who have stood firm against Mike Byrne’s socialism. Any economist or good business person will tell you that a strong industry is best founded on a strong, competitive domestic market. Swimming New Zealand has never understood the importance of domestic competition. Instead they sought and they bought a state funded monopoly. And it hasn’t worked. Their monopoly has never won anything in a decent international swim meet.

Swimming New Zealand has however made it difficult for us to beat them in a domestic competition. Swimming New Zealand’s team has so many financial advantages. There they will be at the Trials, dressed in their silver fern uniforms that we paid for, sitting in their privileged seats beside the New Zealand selectors, swimming with entry fees paid for by my parent’s registration fees, training in lanes bought with my taxes. But if money made you fast, no Kenyan would ever have won an Olympic track race. Swimming New Zealand’s swimmers have had access to all the resources of this sport. But the rest of us operate in a private enterprise environment best suited to winning. The way we do it is harder and more difficult. But it is better. Nine times out of ten, in this clash of ideologies, private enterprise independence prevails.

I am not aware of how many Swimwatch readers will be at the New Zealand trials. However, if you are in Auckland in the last week of March and if you do call in to watch the trials the swimmers you support will matter more than normal. If a swimmer from New Plymouth or West Auckland takes down a Millennium swimmer in the women’s 800, that’s a victory for all of us. When the women’s 200 and 400 medleys are won by a swimmer from Invercargill, New Zealand swimming will be that little bit stronger.  And every time a Millennium swimmer wins a race, the fabric of the sport in New Zealand will be damaged.

The management of elite swimming in New Zealand needs to be changed. The best way to do that is to beat the socialists in the swimming pool. Show them that their ideology is wrong. Show them that there is a better way. Every Swimming New Zealand defeat is a victory for swimming in New Zealand.

By David

When you’re up to your arse in alligators, it hard to remember that your goal was to drain the swamp. Coaching a swim team in West Auckland is a bit like that. The objective is to create an environment where young people can explore their swimming potential. The side show is a bunch of crooks in Wellington whose behaviour needs to be addressed. Clearly, it is important that the time it takes to write this blog and talk swimming politics does not detract from more important swimming matters.

So how successful were we this past New Zealand winter season? I suspect most readers will be aware of our attention to the Wellington side show. Readers of Swimwatch have clearly been interested in the antics of Coulter, Cameron, Byrne and Butler. Our quarterly readership numbers have increased by 150% during 2011. We still have a huge number of honest readers who have Swimwatch delivered in a “plain brown envelope” and deny all knowledge of the seditious blog. However a few hundred New Zealanders every day can’t possibly be wrong.

What about the swimmers? Have we drained the swamp? I think so. We began this season with no swimmers ranked in New Zealand’s top ten performers. The standard of our swimming was not good. I avoided making it obvious but I hated going to meet after meet and not winning a race. That had to change. The first sign we were beginning to turn the corner was at the 2011 New Zealand Division Two Championships in Rotorua. Erica McGough and Alex Tonkins won their events and most of the team made finals. We were at a national meet and we were winning. A refreshing breeze was blowing through the club and it felt good. Swimmers who bought into the distance-based program were making progress. The critics were still vocal but the results were clearly moving in our direction.

Results at the Nationals in Wellington were better than the Club had done in several years. Rhi got a bronze medal in the 50 freestyle. Jane did one better and got two thirds in the 50 and 200 breaststroke. Jessica’s fourth in the 800 freestyle was a sign of better things to come. Amelia completed the list of swimmers making finals in this national event. We were getting better. Our swimmers were winning medals. They were not gold but nevertheless it was progress.

The end of the 2011 winter season was dominated by four important swim meets – the Auckland Level One Meet, the WAQ 50s Meet and the World Cup Meets in Singapore and Beijing. The majority of the team were involved in the two Auckland Meets while Jessica was signed up to swim in Singapore and Beijing.

Rhi won the 100 freestyle at the Level One Meet (57.17) and the 50 freestyle at the WAQ 50s Meet (26.38). Both swims qualified Rhi to swim in the US Olympic Trials, scheduled for Omaha, Nebraska from 25 June to 2 July 2012. Being Rhi, her swims were reported on the authoritative American Swimming World Magazine website. The knockers of her accomplishment didn’t take long to appear. Here is a comment published by one genius. “Making cuts for Trials used to be a meaningful accomplishment. It’s a shame the standards are about where they were in the 1980s. It cheapens the meet to have the cuts so slow.” First of all the comment just isn’t true. In 1980 Rhi’s Auckland swim would have placed her fourth in the Olympic final. In 1984 her time would still have made the final of the Games 100 freestyle. More importantly, since Rhi arrived in New Zealand, in seven months, she has lost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) and transformed herself from an overweight ex swimmer to an athlete preparing to compete at this sport’s highest level – because that’s what the US Olympic Trials happen to be. Don’t knock Rhi Jeffrey. “Come backs” are not easy. Usually they don’t work. In Rhi’s case she is very much in the business of proving the sceptics wrong.

Being Rhi’s boy friend obviously hasn’t hurt Justin’s swimming. In six months his 100 fly has improved from 59.79 to 57.11 (4.5%). Probably his best swim this season was his last race in the WAQ 50s, the 50 freestyle. He was swimming against three or four very good swimmers from Roskill who all had very much better records than Justin’s modest 25.26. Much to my surprise and probably to the surprise of the Roskill guys, Justin swam 24.43 (3.3% improvement in one race) and won the bloody thing. I did say to Justin afterwards to enjoy the moment. He took those Roskill guys by surprise this time but it won’t happen again. Next time he will have three very good swimmers after his hide. They are also very well coached by Paul Kent. He wasn’t New Zealand’s (and one of the world’s) best swimmers for ten years without knowing how to win a swimming race. This next build up better be one of Justin’s best. I have a feeling he’s going to need it.

And then there is Jane. What can you say about Jane? She fifteen and says she’s scared of her own shadow but had no problem bungy jumping during the team’s training camp in Rotorua. She won two bronze medals at the Short Course Age Group Nationals and won all four breaststroke races at the Auckland Level One and WAQ 50s meets. Jane ended the season with a best ranking of tenth in New Zealand Open Women’s breaststroke and second in her age group. This season’s build up will be important for Jane. She hates build ups, but her breaststroke will benefit from the aerobic conditioning.

Jess ended the season in Singapore and Beijing. The experience of World Cup swimming was a revelation. Her short course pre-season best in the 400 improved from 4.22.86 to 4.14.68 (3.1%) and her 800 from 8.59.48 to 8.47.66 (2.2%). Her best open New Zealand ranking however occurred early in the winter over 1500 meters. Her long course time of 17.09.86 ranked her third in the country. Jess is a first class competitor, as tough as nails, as honest as the day is long – all the qualities required to be very good at this sport. She deserves all the success in the world. It is a privilege to be her coach. Oh, and just as important – Jess too did the bungy at training camp in Rotorua.

There is a league of others at WAQ who have progressed well this winter. I have told you Nikki’s story. Abigail improved her 200 breaststroke by 4.7%. In one season that is huge. Xavier, Israel, Amie, Lavinia, Billy, Hannah and a dozen others all had good seasons. The stars tend to hog the limelight but the improvement of the team is just as good, just as valid, just as important.

At the end of the season I am pleased. A WAQ swimmer is ranked in the New Zealand top ten swimmers in every woman’s freestyle event from 50 to 1500 meters. A WAQ swimmer has qualified for the US Olympic Trials in two events. A WAQ swimmer has qualified for three World Cup finals and achieved a best place of fourth. WAQ has five swimmers ranked in the top ten in at least one event in the open or age group New Zealand rankings. Yep, in spite of the best efforts of the alligators in Wellington who run this sport, our guys have drained the swamp, not too badly at all.

By David

A battle has been fought and won. Project Vanguard is dead. Swimming New Zealand spent quarter of a million dollars pushing a Head Office grab for power and they lost. Swimwatch and the Coalition of Regions said, “No, not under any circumstances.”

Today, it’s almost impossible to find Project Vanguard mentioned on the Swimming New Zealand website. Imagine that: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and nothing to show. The grass roots of swimming refused to hand over ownership of the sport to the Coulter gang. The never honoured votes for approval to proceed, Coulter’s slick marketing talk and the offer of swimming Shangri-la faded and finally died on the scrap heap of numerous other costly follies.

Or did it? Has Project Vanguard gone away? Is Swimming New Zealand’s grab for power dead? Has Swimming New Zealand found a better way of achieving the same thing? And has Swimming New Zealand found new and powerful allies prepared to push and pay to get it done? I think that’s exactly what’s happening.

Swimwatch warned the Coalition of Regions that the offer of mediation was a con. We were concerned that in the mediation process unreasonable people would take advantage of good regional people and con them blind. Swimwatch is convinced that this working party is about to introduce Project Vanguard again, through a different door; dressed in a new name. An unholy alliance will see the end of swimming’s regional structure and the imposition of power from Wellington. Federalism will be replaced by central unitary power. SPARC will look after its own.

Swimwatch will fight on, determined to see swimming preserve a federal regional structure; determined to ensure a decentralized network of coaches are charged with the responsibility of delivering championship swimmers. But it should never have come to this. The Coalition of Regions was winning. They had the votes. They had the AGM remits. The bad guys were on the ropes. The hard work had been done. One last AGM punch and it was all over. But the Coalition was not up to the task. They had to be reasonable. They told us:

“better progress could be made through engagement.”

They let us down and now we will have to begin the fight all over again.

There are aspects of the so called management of sport in New Zealand that really beat the hell out of me. Take Peter Miskimmin for example. He’s the CEO of SPARC, the organization the government established to fund sport in New Zealand. He has an important job. Everyone treats him like sporting royalty; lots of kissing and hugging but no real affection. Byrne’s only interest in Miskimmin is to make sure the next government welfare check is as big as possible. The way some organizations, including swimming, prostrate themselves at Miskimmin’s feet is positively embarrassing.

I’ve been to two meetings where Miskimmin was specifically asked why he didn’t get involved in sorting out swimming’s management problems. On both occasions Miskimmin was very clear – the governance of a sport is a subject for the members to decide. SPARC and its CEO have no place interfering in swimming’s management structure. I was impressed. Miskimmin knew the limits of his authority and was not afraid to make his position public.

Now I think the bugger couldn’t lie straight in bed. Five minutes after his convincing expression of independence, he appoints himself to a Steering Committee charged with directing an overhaul of swimming. He says he wants the committee working for him to tell him about:

• Governance factors such as existing constitutions board policies, strategic planning, board membership and linkages to organisational performance
• Organisational structure performance management including the link between roles, resources and strategy
• Relationships between constituent sections of SNZ and related parties providing aquatic products, services or facilities
• The membership model and its relationship to governance and to a revised operating model
• Comparable processes in other sports.

That sounds pretty much like getting involved in the management of swimming to me. It is a real problem. You can’t believe a thing the leaders of our industry say. Miskimmin says one thing and thinks nothing of doing the opposite. The evidence seems to suggest he’s just a lying prick.

Moving on from the squalid political side of swimming, I said I would let you know how our guys got on in the Auckland Level One meet this weekend.

Well, Rhi swam 57.17 and 2.04.67 for the 100 and 200 metres freestyle. The 57.17 was inside the qualifying time for the US Olympic Trials. So Rhi will be appearing on that portion of the Olympic stage again. I was pleased with the 200 metre swim. She swam the last 50 metres in 30.17 which shows some of the huge ability she had to finish races well is on its way back. After three years off and in only nine months back Rhi Jeffrey is in a very good swimming space. Well done Rhi.

Jessica improved her best 800 meters freestyle from 9.13.08 to 8.58.89 (2.6%). That improves her 2011 New Zealand ranking from 12^th to 6^th. Her swim this weekend was always intended as a trial for her swims next week in the Singapore and Beijing World Cup meets. This good trial indicates she will swim her 800 and 400 meters much faster in Asia. Good luck in the big time, Jessica.

Justin swam great. He has not had the easiest of years; with all the Court action required to secure approval to be in the pool at all. This week he passed the required number of credits to graduate from High School and won the 50 (26.11) and 100 (57.38) metres butterfly, both in personal best times. He is a fine young man. His 2011 open New Zealand ranking in the 100 improved from 30^th to 14^th and in the 50 from 28^th to 19^th.

Jane won the 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke events. Her times were not quite as fast as her personal bests. She has huge potential though and after another build up (Jane hates the thought of that distance conditioning) she will be going much faster. She is a great competitor and looked easily in control of these events.

And finally we have Nikki Johns. She won the 50 metres backstroke in a modest time, for her, of 32.90. However when I explain that on Wednesday she had her wisdom teeth removed and swam with her face still puffed up like a World Cup football, perhaps you will appreciate the character required to complete that swim. I think that’s about the seventh time she has had a general anaesthetic procedure in the past six months. Yup, 32.90 sounds pretty good to me.

Some of the other West Auckland swimmers also performed well. Lara went under 30 seconds for the 50 freestyle for the first time and improved her 100 freestyle best time by two seconds. After a week spent tramping in the Ruahine Ranges, sleeping in DOC huts with what she describes as rain beating on the roof, wind howling through the trees and a single candle for light, her two personal best swims were a pretty good result. And Billy, Abigail and Israel all recorded personal best times.

So that’s the good and bad side of swimming this week. Swimming New Zealand’s Annual General Meeting is being held today. I’ll see if I can find out what’s going on and report on Swimwatch next week.

The Barcelona Olympic Games were held in 1992. For me, they were not a happy occasion.   Before the event Toni Jeffs and I stayed in Canet, in France, where the British and Canadian teams were also quartered. It was quiet, peaceful and with everything we needed — good air-conditioned accommodation, a 50-metre pool, a gymnasium, medical attention — only a relatively short distance from the Olympic pool. Toni swam in the Olympic pool three times before the New Zealand team even arrived in Barcelona and found then that the Olympic village accommodation was not air-conditioned and the food, in the way of mass-produced meals, was bland. We decided it would be better to stay in Canet, if Swimming New Zealand agreed.

The team’s chef de mission agreed. The swimming management agreed in a rather reluctant and offhand manner. So we returned to Canet and I was staggered when, the following day, I was contacted from New Zealand and told that Swimming New Zealand management had stated, on television, that we had walked out of the village without approval; disciplinary action would follow when we returned to New Zealand.

The media turned up on our doorstep chasing a story that was, at best, a figment of Swimming New Zealand’s imagination and, at worst, deliberately misleading.

When we got back to New Zealand, we were told a formal inquiry would be held during the New Zealand winter championships. We pre-empted this by formally complaining to the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games’ Athletes’ Commission. It investigated and found in our favour – Swimming New Zealand officials had approved our request and their subsequent actions were personally damaging.

A meeting was held at the NZOCGA offices and it was agreed that Swimming New Zealand had handled the episode badly; if we agreed to accept their apology, the matter would end with no further public comment. We agreed, which, on reflection, was stupid. I have lived ever since with the public perception that I had not allowed Toni to stay in the Olympic village. It was a public relations win for Swimming New Zealand.

The pathetic politics of Swimming New Zealand clouded but did not totally spoil my wonder at the triumphs of Barcelona.  They made my problems trivial and demeaning; an Olympic Games should be attended with confidence, dignity and respect and I was unable to do this. It will not happen again.

A few months later I discussed the whole Barcelona fiasco with New Zealand running great Dick Quax. His comment was one I have never forgotten. “David,” he said, “before a major event avoid all publicity.” Quax’s point was that because there is no sport to report, the press are on the prowl for any crumb of gossip. Trivial issues are magnified by sport’s journo hacks desperate to justify their Olympic expenses. Journalists hunting for news are not noted for their class. Just look at the way Terry Serepisos has had his character assassinated by that pom on Radio Sport between noon and 3.00pm. The same guy rips into athletes who change their sporting nationality. I have a wife who ran for New Zealand and the United Kingdom and a daughter who swam for New Zealand and the US Virgin Islands. Come to think of it, I’ve coached athletes who have represented four or five different countries. None of us have the low life carpet bagger motives attributed to us by the boorish oaf on Radio Sport.

On the subject of Radio Sport – the way their journalists encourage the vilification of the Australian footballer, Quade Cooper, is also a disgrace. Journalists in glass houses should not throw stones. Quade Cooper’s charge was that, in the heat of a rugby international, he kneed the New Zealand captain in the back. Accusing anyone of kicking people in the back is a subject Radio Sport journalists would do well to avoid. At least Cooper was found not guilty.

And so, completely ignoring the good advice of Dick Quax, I want to tell you about a swimming event that is still a week away. You won’t find this event on FINA’s calendar of important international occasions. Even Swimming New Zealand will be far too busy to notice this modest event. But in a week there is an Auckland Level One meet which is very important to the best swimmers on our little team.

Rhi is competing in the 100 and 200 meters freestyle. Sometime soon she has to swim the qualifying times for the US Olympic Trials – 57.19 for the 100 and 2.03.19 for the 200. This event will test how close she is to those targets. The Trials will be held on June 25 – July 2 2012 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Jessica will swim in the 800 meters freestyle. After her good 1500 meter swim of 17.09.86 a few weeks ago, it will be interesting to see how she performs. I see she is ranked first. The swim will be an important trial. Three days later she heads off to Singapore and Beijing to swim in those stops in this year’s World Cup program.

Jane is ranked first in the 50 and 200 meters breaststroke. Over the past few weeks Jane’s training has improved. It will be interesting to see if she can improve on her best times of 2.41.35 and 34.68. I have been fortunate enough to coach two international breaststroke swimmers; Jane Copland and Missy McIntyre. Jane Ip could well become a third.

Justin is ranked first in the 50 and 100 meters butterfly. Like Jane, his training has been progressing well. His easy stroke reminds me of Ossie Quevedo, another butterfly swimmer I coached. Ossie holds the FINA world record for master’s 50 fly in the 30-34 age group. It will be a great day when Justin matches Ossie’s butterfly feats.

Nikki is ranked first in the 50 backstroke. This will be her first individual swim back after the horrendous health problems she has experienced in 2011. I have no expectations for her this weekend. I am happy that she is well enough to compete. Whatever her result it will be an achievement and good enough for all of us.

There is a political aspect to all this. Every time Club swimmers take on the coterie of privilege from the Millennium Institute there is a political point to be made – private enterprise can do it better. Every time a swimmer from United or Roskill or West Auckland Aquatics beats one of the products of the socialist delivery of sport from the Millennium Institute, swimming in New Zealand improves. The point has to be made; the lesson has to be taught – you do not need to be on swimming welfare to be a world class athlete. In fact it’s better if you are not. And so, Godspeed Nikki, Jessica, Rhi, Jane and Justin – the cause you represent is good and important to swimming in this country.

Swimwatch will let you know how they fare.