Swimming: Record-breaker returns to say thanks

Greerton swimmers with five of New Zealand's Aqua Blacks pictured front, from left, Neilson Varoy, Nathan Capp, Jeffrey Arona-Tuifana'e, Matthew Stanley and George Schroeder. Photo / Andrew Warner

Greerton Swimming Club's favourite son returned home to run a special clinic for some of the club's top juniors on Saturday morning.

Nathan Capp wanted to thank his club for their help in funding him to the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Qatar next month.

Capp received worldwide acclaim in September when he wiped 16 seconds off Danyon Loader's New Zealand 1500m freestyle record that had stood for 22 years. He organised four other top New Zealand Aqua Blacks in Matthew Stanley, George Schroeder, Jeffrey Arona-Tuifana'e and Neilson Varoy to join him in a unique two hour training session at the Greerton pools.

Capp says it was a special feeling to come back to where it all started for him.

"It is good to give some knowledge and a few smiles back to the kids and back to Greerton Swimming Club, who I have swum for my whole life," he said. "They still support me a lot and it is awesome what they do for me. I really like coming down here."

Capp has been training hard for five weeks, "just doing super long miles", in preparation for what he hopes will be a successful world championships.

"It has been tough training but I am feeling good. I definitely want to final as I have done the third fastest time in the world so far, so depending on how the others work out, I might be ranked third going in. I just want to keep improving. A PB at the world short course would be great but it is all about preparing the best you can."

Greerton coach Tai Daniela was impressed with the way the five top swimmers mucked in with the juniors and gave so much to the session.

"They ran the warm-ups, looked after different lanes, and it was good for our swimmers to see guys they had read about looking after them," Daniela said. "They gave some really good technique tips, but it was really nice to get our guys to watch them swim really fast. The last time we had this number of swimmers of this calibre in Tauranga was five years ago.

"Nathan has done exceptionally well and he is starting to get some really top quality results. He can safely put his hand up and say 'I am the best long distance freestyler New Zealand's ever had' and that is really special.

"He has done the hard yards to get there."