Archive for July, 2014

Accountability – New Zealand Swimming and the Commonwealth Games

Wednesday, July 30th, 2014

By David

And so Miskimmin’s new Swimming New Zealand swim school has had its first test at a pinnacle event; the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. And Miskimmin and his organization bombed; vanished virtually without trace.

Accountability is a word the Australian CEO of Swimming New Zealand, Christian Renford, ordered to be printed at the conclusion of every corporate email and letter. So just who is accountable for the carnage in Glasgow? The last time Scotland witnessed ruin on this scale was on a field called Culloden.

Certainly someone has to be accountable. A loss of this proportion cannot go unpunished. The organization’s “Whole of Sport Plan” promised seven able-bodied medals. New Zealand’s swimmers delivered two. Heads must roll. But whose heads you may ask? Well, let’s be very clear. The swimmers who represented their country in the Tollcross Pool are not at fault. No, they are the principle victims.   

In my opinion the buck stops at the top; that’s Miskimmin, the SNZ Board, Renford, Villanueva and Lyles. In any area of activity a loss of this magnitude would be punished. The corporate CEO who tells the Stock Exchange to expect a profit of $7million and delivers $2million, the rugby coach who wins two games in a seven match season, the surgeon who cures two patients out of every seven, the postie who delivers five out of seven letters to the wrong address; would all expect to have their employment terminated.

And so Miskimmin and your swimming sycophants; does the use of “accountability” mean anything or is an empty word, signifying nothing? From the grass roots of swimming, Swimwatch now calls on you all to resign; leave the sport to those better able to do a decent job; get out now. You have been accommodated and found wanting. You have been given our country’s $2million and have spent it imprudently for little return. You have brought embarrassment to our country, our sport and some talented young people who put their trust and toil in your hands. Did you know today I met a woman who has spent her life involved in New Zealand swimming? Her knowledge of things swimming is without peer. She is to swimming what Lydiard and Jelley are to athletics, or Fred Allan was to rugby. She told me the devastation in Glasgow was more than she could bear. She feared she could stand it no longer.

The reality is that those who caused her pain, those who left our swim team so vulnerable to failure, it is them we expect to hand in the keys to their corporate Mazdas and catch airplanes back to whence they came.

And as if winning two medals wasn’t bad enough. Having only 3 out of 27 events (11%), swum in a personal best time is even worse. When Renford arrived in New Zealand he said, on Radio Sport, that New Zealand swim coaches were in dire need of improvement. Much work, he said, was needed to lift the standard of New Zealand coaching. Well, let me tell Renford, the personal best ratio of 11% achieved by your coaches and your swim school in Glasgow would be enough to cause every New Zealand club coach to hide in embarrassment. Has Swimming New Zealand no shame? How could they go to a world event and have only two swimmers, in three events, compete at the top of their form. And one of them, Corey Main, has spent the last three years at the University of Florida, 8000 miles away from SNZ’s Millennium centre of mediocrity. It is no coincidence that New Zealand’s better performances came from athletes stationed overseas. But there were other things just as bad. For example:

Promoting relay swimmers to individual events was cheating. That rule change came on the same day as the team announcement; something specifically prohibited in the original Conditions of Selection document.

Carting swimmers from New Zealand to spend almost two months on the Mediterranean coast so that they could swim one leg of a relay heat is outrageous. Spending $2million taxpayer dollars in twelve months on coaches, high end salaries, customized cars, new offices, high altitude camps in two continents, a week on the Mediterranean resort island of Mallorca, fake Millennium NZ uniforms with their fake silver ferns and a pre-Games tour of Europe’s “costa del playground” is shameful. And for what result? I thought Swimming New Zealand was bad. But this was more than bad. This was as pathetic as it was expected.

I was recently told that the four words, “I told you so” were the most satisfying in the English language. And they are, when you know that “I told you so” may result in change. Ah, but I hear some readers say what about cycling and rowing? Let there be no misunderstanding, the success of cycling has nothing to do with Miskimmin’s policy of centralization. Until six months ago track cycling was coached by the hugely successful Justin Grace. Unlike swimming where the policy of centralization has been in vogue for about ten years, not enough time has gone by for centralization to wreak havoc on the work Justin Grace did from his east Auckland home.

And as for rowing – well first of all it’s primarily a team sport and on that basis alone merits some centralization. Swimming is not. And secondly in Richard Tonks rowing found a coaching genius; an Arthur Lydiard, an Arch Jelley, a man who could have coached Olympic champion rowers on any still piece of water in the country. Centralisation has traded off the genius of Tonks for too long.

You possibly still don’t believe. Well explain judo to me. No centralization, no Miskimmin, no imported bureaucracy, but five Glasgow medals nevertheless. Two million taxpayer dollars and swimming under Layton’s Board, and Renford, Villanueva and Lyles can only deliver 40% of the medals won by a diversified federal sport backed by no material government funding. Beware Judo. Miskimmin could be about to pay you a visit. His first offer will be a paid-for thorough review of the sport, followed by a Whole of Sport Plan that will recommend and alien CEO and an imported National Coach. And in a few years you too will understand the chaos called swimming.

But possibly there is a glimmer of hope. Perhaps there are honourable people at the top of New Zealand sport; at the top of New Zealand swimming. Perhaps the word accountable is not just an empty platitude. Perhaps there are principled men and women who mean what they say. And if that’s the case I look forward to reading about the resignation of the SNZ Board, of Renford, Villanueva and Lyles as an early and welcome post on the new SNZ website. You see that’s the meaning of accountable.

PS – Since writing this story I have been sent a report on the NewstalkZB website. In it Villanueva seems to be embarking on a “blame the swimmers” crusade. Villanueva is reported to be “taking a hard-line stance with some of the results of New Zealand’s swimmers at the Commonwealth Games”. He goes on to say, “setting personal bests or improving times from heats to finals is the expectation, and there wasn’t enough of that in Glasgow. We need to set these standards according to where we go. If we go to a World Championships we need to set these standards high, and there’s no exception for that.”

I guess setting high standards is why Villanueva decided to enter a bunch of unqualified athletes in individual events. It’s enough to make you vomit. If I buy the ticket to Spain I wonder if Villanueva would leave us alone. Certainly I do not detect anything in this report that suggests honour or accountable or principle. But then this is Swimming New Zealand – what would you expect?

State Control or Private Enterprise

Monday, July 21st, 2014

By David

Swimwatch readers will realise that philosophically this blog prefers the provision of sport via a private enterprise system of delivery. Currently New Zealand practises a very centralized state controlled method of sport delivery; born, nurtured and imposed by the CEO of Sport New Zealand, Peter Miskimmin.

Very few people in sport express disapproval of Miskimmin’s state control of the means of sporting trade and production. Self-interest and personal profit demand loyalty to the state. Financial penalties can be quick and severe on any who call for Miskimmin to step aside; to get out of an activity he is not equipped to manage and is suffering as a result of his presence. Sadly the silence of the majority and the vociferous support of a few are taken as evidence of widespread support. They are not. They simply reflect the power of self-preservation; the fear of financial retribution.

Certainly there is no evidence that Miskimmin’s state control delivery of elite sport produces better outcomes. Just look at swimming. In the era before Miskimmin and Cameron and the government’s millions, swimming was managed and controlled from two offices in Wellington’s Dominion Building. There was a meeting room and a small crowded office that housed the hard working, underpaid, skilled sole and part time employee, Donella Tait. How on earth she has never been awarded life membership of the organization is beyond me. The hallway between the two rooms was dark and slightly unnerving. It gave the impression Donella had removed light bulbs to reduce the organization’s power bill.

Hallway, meeting room and office walls were covered in faded pictures of New Zealand’s best swimmers. Swimmers produced by a federal private enterprise system of production and control. In those days a democratically elected Board saw their role as assisting as far as they could the Regions and clubs produce New Zealand’s best swimmers. Today’s Board elected in a Syrian style mockery of democracy clearly see the role of Swimming New Zealand as controlling the training of good swimmers. Why else would they provide scholarships, hire coaches and rent copious pool and gym space in Auckland and Wellington?

So how did the clubs, the federally elected Board and Donella Tait get on? Did the club’s produce any good swimmers in the era before the government’s Antares Place swim school; before Miskimmin, over ten years, poured $20,000,000 into swimming; before the era of fat cat bureaucrats on inflated salaries and leather bound, air conditioned Mazda SUVs? Well, the following list is not researched. It comes only from the writer’s memory. But the private enterprise delivery of swimming didn’t do too badly. For example:

Gary Hurring – Commonwealth Gold, World LC Championship Silver, Olympic fourth

Anthony Mosse – Olympic Bronze, Commonwealth 2xGold, Silver and Bronze

Paul Kingsman – Olympic Bronze, Commonwealth Games 3xSilver and Bronze

Anna Simcic – Commonwealth Gold and 2xSilver, Olympic Games fifth, world record

Toni Jeffs – Commonwealth Games 2xBronze, WC Finals Bronze

Paul Kent – World SC Championships Gold and Silver

Philippa Langrell – Olympic Games fourth,

Danyon Loader, Olympic 2xGold and Silver, World LC Championships Silver and 2xBronze, Commonwealth Games Gold, 3xSilver, 2xBronze, world record

Jonathan Winter – World SC Championships Gold

Trent Bray – World SC Championships Gold, 3xSilver, Commonwealth Games 3xSilver and Bronze

Of course this list of the products of a free enterprise system of elite sport delivery does not include previous generation winners such as Dave Gerrard, Malcolm Champion, Jean Stewart, Lincoln Hurring, Margaret Macrae, Mark Treffers, Judith Wright, Rebecca Perrott, Michael Davidson, Liz van Wellie, Natalie Wiegersma and a dozen others.

Oh, how Miskimmin would love to be able to boast a list of that quality. But, after ten years and $20,000,000 he can’t. Of course Miskimmin and Swimming New Zealand would claim the talented World SC Champion, Lauren Boyle. But, make no mistake, Boyle’s career was conceived in West Auckland under the guidance of Donna Bouzaid and nurtured and blossomed at Cal Berkley by Terri McKever. It seems to me that Swimming New Zealand’s contribution has been limited to money and chaos. That Boyle has survived at all is a colossal testament to the determination and talent of New Zealand’s current best swimmer.

So if Miskimmin’s millions haven’t purchased results what have they bought? Well, gone is Donella Tait’s sole charge bureaucracy. Gone too are the two offices and a dark hallway. Today Miskimmin’s idea of “professional management” is costing us a fortune in offices and twenty or thirty employees, for what?

It seems to have produced a generation of sporting “fat cats”; an entourage of hangers-on who feed off Miskimmin’s millions and the toil of Boyle, Snyders and hundreds of others in your club and mine. While Renford distributes a document telling us he owns a three storey house in Sydney worth in “the vicinity of $1.5million” and, I’m told, owns another a block away from Takapuna Beach in Auckland, has your club or mine changed in any way from the day Langrell swam for Wharenui, or Kingsman represented Roskill or Kent trained at West Auckland Aquatics. Miskimmin’s followers drive around in climate controlled luxury and accumulate international capital assets while nothing in the trenches has changed.

So what do we do about it? No one here is suggesting we go back to two offices, a dark hallway and one part time assistant. But we are in trouble. Administrators have to combine into a new “Coalition of Regions” and reclaim control of their sport. The Syrian style of democracy introduced by Chris Moller’s constitution has to be turned back. And that’s the task of caring administrators. Millennium Institute swimming has to be privatised and stand on its own financial feet. Swimming should receive the same financial help but that money needs to strengthen the structures and free enterprise philosophy that gave us Loader, Mosse and Kingsman – and Boyle for that matter.

And every club coach must understand that they have a fundamental responsibility to the sport to coach swimmers capable of defeating those swimming at the government’s swim school. We have to demonstrate that with all their money and posh cars and expensive houses we can do swimming better. The Millennium Institute and those who nurture it are the enemy within and must be defeated.

Full Mail Bag

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014

By David

My last Swimwatch article described the disruption to my daily routine caused by having two operations on an infected wound on my leg. Writing for Swimwatch has been difficult. Mr. Martin, the surgeon who skillfully removed the offending tissue and replaced it with a skin graft from my thigh, counselled against spending time sitting at a computer; preferring rest with my leg in an elevated position. And that is what I have tried to do.

Things seem to be going well. I saw Mr. Martin again today and he has cleared me for light duties. Interestingly he did point out a deeper section of the wound and said, “That’s your shin bone.” I guess it’s not everybody who has seen their shin from the inside – for me certainly, another first.

Anyway Mr. Martin’s opinion has cleared the way for Swimwatch to resume normal transmission.

A blog such as Swimwatch generates some email correspondence sent directly to the author of the blog. I don’t get a lot these emails; perhaps two or three a week. For example I received three messages this week. I have no idea of the answer to any of them. But let me share with you their content and perhaps there is a reader who can solve my correspondents’ problems. I must add that I have not checked the facts. Instead I will relay their contents simply as they were told to me.

The first email concerned the Junior Pan Pacific Games. I am told this event overlaps the National Short Course Championships by two days. As a result swimmers involved in the Pan Pacific Junior event will miss at least the first two days of the domestic Championship. That has the potential to be very serious for Junior Pan Pacific Games’ swimmers wanting to qualify for the Doha World Short Course Championships. The National Championship is the qualifying meet for Doha.

For example, a swimmer such as Bradley Ashby will be at the Junior Pan Pacific Games and will miss his favored 400 IM event at the Short Course Nationals; an event at which he could reasonably expect to qualify. So, if all that’s true, how is Swimming New Zealand going to accommodate a serious injustice. My guess is they will eventually realize their scheduling stupidity and will change the rules. An organization that can add relay swimmers into Commonwealth Game’s individual events outside the rules is capable of anything.

My second email questioned the $3800 user pays amount being charged to swimmers attending the Junior Olympics. My correspondent tells me Swimming New Zealand have said the amount is to cover travel, uniforms and the like but has not provided a detailed breakdown. I’m told the New Zealand Olympic Committee was contacted. They said travel, uniforms and accommodation for the Junior Olympics were paid for by the Olympic movement.

So just what does the $3800 SNZ invoice cover? Surely the National body is not into double dipping? Certainly the suspicion of making money out of the nation’s best junior swimmers is sufficiently high to demand Swimming New Zealand publish a detailed breakdown of the amount. We won’t get it of course. This, after all, is Antares Place behind closed doors.

Or is it? My third correspondent signed him or her self “Concerned Mainlander” and forwarded me a hilarious email. It was sent out by the CEO of Swimming New Zealand, Christian Renford. In it Renford includes the minutes of the last SNZ Chairman’s conference call with the Chairmen of the New Zealand regions. Renford attached what he said was notes on factors to be taken into account when preparing a modern “Health and Safety” policy. I opened the notes and saw why Renford’s email had been sent to me. Instead of health and safety notes Renford had attached notes prepared by an Australian real estate agent on selling Renford’s Sydney home. It’s all there, the expected price, selling expenses, details of the current tenants and Renford’s autograph.

Now my concern is not the hilarious mistake of adding a personal house sale’s agreement to a SNZ document. We all make those sorts of mistakes. It does however make a mockery of Renford’s email “Excellence” sign-off. Attention to detail may be in need of attention. No my concern is the impression and probability that Renford is conducting personal business on Swimming New Zealand computers. The obvious proximity of his house sale’s agreement with SNZ files suggests Renford may be using SNZ property for his personal use. The impression is sufficiently real that a Regional Chairman should be asking for an explanation.

After all it was only a few years ago that the Chairman of the Hawkes Bay Poverty Bay Region complained to my employer when he received an email from my work computer; an action I was asked to explain. Let’s see whether the current Chairman of the HBPB Region is as diligent in pursuing the CEO of Swimming New Zealand for possibly the same transgression.

Because personal use, if that’s what this is, is certainly a transgression. This is how a prominent US attorney describes the rules.

The use of company automation systems, including computers, is for company business only. Use of company computers and internet access is a privilege granted by management and may be revoked at any time for inappropriate conduct carried out on such systems, including, but not limited to engaging in private or personal business activities. If you violate these policies, you could be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.

The Board of Swimming New Zealand need to clarify whether a SNZ asset is being used, by the CEO, to conduct personal business. If Renford is using a SNZ asset to sell his Australian property did the Board approve that use and where is the published record of that approval?

So that’s this week’s three emails. As I say, if any reader can throw light on their content, positive or negative we would love to hear from you.

In Need Of Surgical Intervention

Saturday, July 5th, 2014

By David

If anyone has noticed a pause in the posting of a Swimwatch story, it’s because I have been on a two week holiday. Where does a swim coach go on these occasions; Monte Carlo perhaps, The US Virgin Islands maybe? But no, in my case, I spent two weeks enjoying the service provided by the surgical ward of the North Shore Hospital.

What happened? Well the short version is I accidentally kicked a swimming pool ladder and cut my shin. For some reason it refused to heal and six months later a biopsy discovered something called squamous cell skin cancer. It needed to be cut out but because of its size also required a skin graft. Two weeks and two operations later – one a spinal anaesthetic, brilliant and the other a general, not so good and I’m as right as rain; no nastiness left and no spreading.

I am bored while I wait for the skin graft to accept its new home but the holiday has provided time to investigate New Zealand swimming’s starting position at this year’s Commonwealth Games.

Remember this is the team that the Board of Swimming New Zealand; that’s Layton, McKee, Power, Hunt, Cotterill and Brown, the executive; that’s Renford, Villanueva, and Lyles and first and foremost Miskimmin decided was worth spending $2 million tax payer dollars in the last twelve months preparing for the Games. No cost has been spared in Miskimmin’s attempt to prove his version of sporting socialism works. The team has been coached by five international coaches, has made two trips to high altitude training camps in Spain and the United States, has spent weeks on the Mediterranean sunshine coast, has competed in Monte Carlo and Vichy and has rounded it all off with a week in the holiday resort island of Mallorca. The New Zealand build-up to these Games has read like a premium tour of European holiday resorts. When the new Swimming New Zealand decides to spend to make a point, to protect Miskimmin’s reputation, to save their Mazda SUVs, no dollar is spared, no cost is too great. All up the travel exercise alone must be costing us half a million dollars over and above the Millennium’s annual $2 million.

Their Whole of Sport Plan says the $2 million dollars per year and the $500K in travel will buy the county 7 medals. Do the pre-Games psych sheets agree with Miskimmin’s forecast? The table below might help illustrate where we stand going into the meet.

There are some things to remember about a table such as this. First, like all psych sheets, this one will mean little when the racing starts. It is a guide to recent form and that’s about all. Second the eight swimmers ranked in each event are taken from the world ranking lists published on the FINA website. Third, the table shows the swimmer’s world ranking, their best time, their name and their nationality. And fourth the ranking is based on three swimmers per country per event. New Zealand swimmers ranked in the top eight are shown in bold red print. One of the New Zealanders, who makes the Commonwealth cut, Gabrielle Fa’amausili, is not actually in Glasgow; highlighting perhaps our obsolete attitude to sprint swimming.

It should also be noted that this home-made psych sheet does not reflect the fact that swimmers from Great Britain are able to swim for Scotland, England and Wales. In some events, like men’s breaststroke, where the GBR is on fire just now the eligibility of up to nine British swimmers could seriously affect Snyder’s prospects.

50 FREESTYLE WOMEN

50 FREESTYLE MEN

100 FREESTYLE WOMEN

100 FREESTYLE MEN

1 24.13 Campbell, Cate AUS

4 24.38 Halsall, Francesca GBR

6 24.58 Campbell, Bronte AUS

8 24.65 Vanderpool-Wallace,Arianna BAH

9 24.69 Schlanger, Melanie AUS

21 25.06 Smith, Amy GBR

22 25.07 Harkin, Sian GBR

32 25.29 Poon, Victoria CAN

5 21.65 Sullivan, Eamon AUS

8 21.77 Magnussen, James AUS

9 21.86 Proud, Benjamin GBR

10 21.87 Abood, Matthew AUS

17 22.04 Schoeman, Roland RSA ”

25 22.22 Tandy, Brad RSA

28 22.27 Brown, Adam GBR

46 22.47 Schafers, Richard GBR

1 52.68 Campbell, Cate AUS

3 53.02 Campbell, Bronte AUS

5 53.43 McKeon, Emma AUS

13 54.07 Halsall, Francesca GBR

19 54.38 Vanderpool-Wallace,Arianna BAH

22 54.48 Prinsloo, Karin RSA

26 54.67 Poon, Victoria CAN

32 54.83 Haughey, Siobhan Bernadette HKG

1 47.59 Magnussen, James AUS

2 47.65 McEvoy, Cameron AUS

16 48.72 D’Orsogna, Tommaso AUS

50 49.35 Brown, Adam GBR

53 49.38 Le Clos, Chad RSA ”

56 49.39 Schoeman, Roland RSA

66 49.54 Jarvis, Calum GBR ”

66 49.54 Proud, Benjamin GBR

200 FREESTYLE WOMEN

200 FREESTYLE MEN

400 FREESTYLE WOMEN

400 FREESTYLE MEN

2 1:55.68 McKeon, Emma AUS

10 1:56.59 O’Connor, Siobhan-Marie GBR

11 1:56.61 Barratt, Bronte AUS

15 1:57.17 Prinsloo, Karin RSA

18 1:57.57 MacLean, Brittany CAN

19 1:57.64 Elmslie, Brittany AUS

20 1:57.65 Carlin, Jazmin GBR

21 1:57.67 Boyle, Lauren NZL 

1 1:45.46 McEvoy, Cameron AUS

2 1:45.58 Fraser-Holmes, Thomas AUS

8 1:46.37 McKeon, David AUS

22 1:47.54 Guy, James GBR

24 1:47.60 Renwick, Robbie GBR

26 1:47.70 Brown, Devon RSA

28 1:47.77 Jarvis, Calum GBR

48 1:48.43 Le Clos, Chad RSA

3 4:04.03 Carlin, Jazmin GBR

4 4:04.56 Barratt, Bronte AUS

8 4:05.01 Ashwood, Jessica AUS

10 4:06.02 Fairweather, Remy AUS

12 4:06.08 Boyle, Lauren NZL

14 4:06.20 MacLean, Brittany CAN

32 4:08.98 Willmott, Aimee GBR

34 4:09.38 McClatchey, Caitlin GBR

1 3:43.72 McKeon, David AUS

4 3:44.60 Horton, Mack AUS

6 3:45.15 Guy, James GBR

7 3:47.30 Cochrane, Ryan CAN

8 3:47.31 Grainger, Nicholas GBR

9 3:47.42 Harrison, Jordan AUS

11 3:47.90 Stanley, Matthew NZL

15 3:48.34 Renwick, Robbie GBR

800 FREESTYLE WOMEN

1500 FREESTYLE MEN

50 BACK WOMEN

50 BACK MEN

2 8:18.36 Carlin, Jazmin GBR

3 8:19.76 Ashwood, Jessica AUS

5 8:24.91 MacLean, Brittany CAN

12 8:27.48 Boyle, Lauren NZL

14 8:29.02 Goldman, Katie AUS

16 8:29.40 Bowles, Alanna AUS

21 8:32.37 Baumann, Tabitha CAN

22 8:32.99 Faulkner, Eleanor GBR

2 14:51.55 Horton, Mack AUS

5 14:59.86 Fogg, Daniel GBR

9 15:01.72 Cochrane, Ryan CAN

21 15:09.67 Levings, Matthew AUS

23 15:10.02 Brown, Devon RSA

25 15:10.60 Grainger, Nicholas GBR

27 15:12.70 Lelliott, Jay GBR

33 15:15.35 Brothers, William CAN

3 27.80 Davies, Georgia GBR

4 27.90 Quigley, Lauren GBR

5 27.95 Seebohm, Emily AUS

8 28.04 Halsall, Francesca GBR

14 28.25 Wilson, Madison AUS

16 28.31 Fa’amausili, Gabrielle NZL

20 28.49 Russell, Sinead CAN

7 24.54 Treffers, Benjamin AUS

17 25.09 Walker-Hebborn, Christopher GBR

18 25.10 Hurley, Bobby AUS

24 25.28 Arnamnart, Daniel AUS

25 25.30 Zandberg,Gerhard RSA

26 25.34 Larkin, Mitchell AUS

30 25.37 Beaver, Joshua AUS

31 25.38 Tancock, Liam GBR

100 BACK WOMEN

100 BACK MEN

200 BACK WOMEN

200 BACK MEN

2 58.92 Seebohm, Emily AUS

6 59.78 Davies, Georgia GBR

9 59.83 Hocking, Belinda AUS

10 59.90 Nay, Meagen AUS

12 1:00.00 Russell, Sinead CAN

13 1:00.01 Quigley, Lauren GBR

13 1:00.01 Simmonds, Elizabeth GBR

16 1:00.23 Snodgrass, Brooklynn CAN

7 53.46 Larkin, Mitchell AUS

8 53.55 Treffers, Benjamin AUS

10 53.67 Delaney, Ashley AUS

13 53.82 Walker-Hebborn,Christopher GBR

14 53.84 Beaver, Joshua AUS

32 54.47 Main, Corey NZL

33 54.51 Tancock, Liam GBR

39 54.71 Wood, Russell CAN

1 2:06.40 Hocking, Belinda AUS

4 2:08.19 Nay, Meagen AUS

5 2:08.28 Seebohm, Emily AUS

7 2:08.91 Simmonds, Elizabeth GBR

11 2:09.40 Cantin, Genevieve CAN

13 2:09.58 Russell, Sinead CAN

17 2:09.79 Quigley, Lauren GBR

18 2:10.11 Caldwell, Hilary CAN

5 1:55.26 Larkin, Mitchell AUS

7 1:56.35 Lawson, Matson AUS

9 1:56.83 Beaver, Joshua AUS

22 1:57.93 Le Clos, Chad RSA

32 1:58.87 McNally, Craig GBR

34 1:58.88 Boldison, Charlie GBR

42 1:59.43 Patching, Joe GBR

43 1:59.50 Wood, Russell CAN

50 BREAST WOMEN

50 BREAST MEN

100 BREAST WOMEN

100 BREAST MEN

5 30.89 Pickett, Leiston AUS

7 30.98 Taylor, Sophie GBR

12 31.18 HUNTER, SALLY AUS

16 31.27 Tonks, Lorna AUS

23 31.38 Scott, Corrie GBR

25 31.43 Vasey, Sarah GBR

29 31.52 Van Beilen, Tera CAN

42 31.70 Wallace, Tessa AUS

1 26.74 Sprenger, Christian AUS

2 27.05 Van Der Burgh, Cameron RSA

4 27.19 Peaty, Adam GBR

7 27.28 Murdoch, Ross GBR

10 27.38 Snyders, Glenn NZL

17 27.64 Weatheritt, Andrew GBR

25 27.73 Tully, Mark GBR

35 27.82 Funk, Richard CAN

7 1:07.08 Taylor, Sophie GBR

9 1:07.15 Atkinson, Alia JAM

12 1:07.26 Tonks, Lorna AUS

13 1:07.56 Pickett, Leiston AUS

16 1:07.73 Hunter, Sally AUS

32 1:08.39 Van Beilen, Tera CAN

37 1:08.59 Nicholas, Tara-Lynn RSA

37 1:08.59 Pasloski, Bronwyn CAN

2 58.87 Sprenger, Christian AUS

3 59.25 Peaty, Adam GBR

4 59.50 Van Der Burgh, Cameron RSA

5 59.56 Murdoch, Ross GBR

13 1:00.39 Snyders, Glenn NZL

19 1:00.53 Jamieson, Michael GBR

51 1:01.38 Packard, Jake AUS

77 1:01.73 Sykes, Buster AUS

200 BREAST WOMEN

200 BREAST MEN

50 FLY WOMEN

50 FLY MEN

4 2:22.10 McKeown, Taylor AUS

9 2:24.46 Taylor, Sophie GBR

9 2:24.46 Renshaw, Molly GBR

13 2:24.91 Hunter, Sally AUS

16 2:25.29 Wallace, Tessa AUS

17 2:25.52 Atkinson, Alia JAM

27 2:26.59 Smith, Kierra CAN

28 2:26.66 Van Beilen, Tera CAN

2 2:07.79 Jamieson, Michael GBR

5 2:08.63 Sprenger, Christian AUS

6 2:09.15 Murdoch, Ross GBR

7 2:09.40 Peaty, Adam GBR

21 2:11.07 Snyders, Glenn NZL

43 2:12.26 Tranter, Daniel AUS

58 2:12.95 Sykes, Buster AUS

59 2:12.97 Funk, Richard CAN

4 25.83 Halsall, Francesca GBR

6 26.00 Vanderpool-Wallace, Arianna BAH

8 26.14 Elmslie, Brittany AUS

10 26.20 D’ Cruz Guehrer, Marieke AUS

16 26.33 Thomas, Noemie CAN

17 26.35 Coutts, Alicia AUS

22 26.41 Smith, Amy GBR

23 26.43 Mainville, Sandrine CAN

3 23.07 Schoeman, Roland RSA

11 23.42 Proud, Benjamin GBR

20 23.82 Romeo, Nathaniel AUS

26 23.86 Le Clos, Chad RSA

30 23.90 James, Antony GBR

31 23.91 McEvoy, Cameron AUS

34 23.95 Hadler, Jayden AUS

36 23.96 Brown, Adam GBR

100 FLY WOMEN

100 FLY MEN

200 FLY WOMEN

200 FLY MEN

3 57.27 Savard, Katerine CAN

5 57.43 Groves, Madeline AUS

7 57.60 Coutts, Alicia AUS

9 57.98 Gandy, Ellen AUS

12 58.21 Halsall, Francesca GBR

16 58.34 O’Connor, Siobhan-Marie GBR

17 58.40 Kelly, Rachael GBR

21 58.54 Thomas, Noemie CAN

17 52.16 Wright, Chris AUS

18 52.21 D’Orsogna, Tommaso AUS

21 52.33 Hadler, Jayden AUS

28 52.55 Guy, James GBR

31 52.57 Barrett, Adam GBR

38 52.75 Laxton, Thomas GBR

40 52.79 Roebuck, Joe GBR

50 52.95 Schooling, Joseph SIN

4 2:06.81 Groves, Madeline AUS

5 2:07.06 Gandy, Ellen AUS

8 2:07.61 Savard, Katerine CAN

11 2:07.97 Willmott, Aimee GBR

14 2:08.84 Lacroix, Audrey CAN

15 2:08.91 Coutts, Alicia AUS

19 2:09.52 Lowe, Jemma GBR

25 2:10.12 Thomas, Alys Margaret GBR

1 1:54.56 Le Clos, Chad RSA

8 1:56.23 Irvine, Grant AUS

10 1:56.41 Pratt, Mitchell AUS

19 1:56.92 Bosch, Dylan RSA

23 1:57.20 Pavoni, Roberto GBR

24 1:57.28 Roebuck, Joe GBR

27 1:57.48 Tranter, Daniel AUS

40 1:57.96 Brodie, Cameron GBR

200 IM WOMEN

200 IM MEN

400 IM WOMEN

400 IM MEN

1 2:08.89 Coutts, Alicia AUS

2 2:09.63 O’Connor, Siobhan-Marie

6 2:10.60 Willmott, Aimee GBR

10 2:11.25 Seebohm, Emily AUS

12 2:11.54 Allen, Sophie GBR

15 2:11.99 Miley, Hannah GBR

19 2:12.26 Seltenreich-Hodgson, Erika CAN

28 2:13.08 Ngawati, Kotuku AUS

3 1:57.66 Tranter, Daniel AUS

5 1:57.88 Fraser-Holmes, Thomas AUS

6 1:57.94 Le Clos, Chad RSA

12 1:59.08 Pavoni, Roberto GBR

13 1:59.23 Bosch, Dylan RSA

15 1:59.29 Larkin, Mitchell AUS

23 1:59.84 White, Evan CAN

28 1:59.95 Wallace, Dan GBR

 

3 4:33.25 Miley, Hannah GBR

5 4:33.64 Willmott, Aimee GBR

15 4:39.69 McMaster, Keryn AUS

17 4:40.07 Seltenreich-Hodgson, Erika CAN

20 4:41.11 Gandy, Ellen AUS

30 4:42.42 Lowe, Danielle GBR

31 4:42.84 Overholt, Emily CAN

48 4:45.33 Rudin, Rosie GBR

4 4:10.68 Fraser-Holmes, Thomas AUS

7 4:12.24 Pavoni, Roberto GBR

13 4:14.81 Le Clos, Chad RSA

17 4:15.76 Smith, Lewis GBR

18 4:15.80 Page, Alec CAN

19 4:15.86 Reilly, Luke CAN

21 4:16.40 Wallace, Dan GBR

25 4:17.39 Mahoney, Travis AUS

So what does the table tell us?

Well if results go according to the psych sheets New Zealand will not win a single individual medal of any colour at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. New Zealand’s best ranked swimmer is Lauren Boyle, ranked 4th in the 800 meters. Her best 2014 time is nine seconds behind the leading time swum by Jazmin Carlin from the UK.

Four swimmers are ranked in the top eight in eight events. Medals will depend on Boyle, Snyders, Stanley or Main beating opposition who right now have faster times than them.

With all the money Miskimmin has poured into swimming recently 24 (75%) individual Commonwealth Games swimming events will take place without a New Zealand swimmer ranked in the top 8. That is terrible. Miskimmin’s policy does not work.

The psych sheets do not make good reading. Certainly the pre-race rankings do not justify the nation’s financial investment. But perhaps the team will perform above their pre-race status. Because that is what a good result is going to require.

With these psych sheets, winning seven medals is a big ask. If the team does not perform above their pre-race status, those responsible, that’s the Board of Swimming New Zealand; Layton, McKee, Power, Hunt, Cotterill and Brown, the executive; that’s Renford, Villanueva, and Lyles and first and foremost that’s Miskimmin will merit surgical intervention. I can recommend just the place.