SWIMMING - Breathing with corks

SIMON Parker is treading water until he can get an operation to remove his tonsils.
The 17-year-old swimmer has been plagued by recurring tonsillitis since July last year and it is continuing to play havoc with his swimming.
Parker is one of a number of promising young Northland swimmers that have already achieved qualifying times in open swimming events for next year's New Zealand national championships.
"One of my tonsils is pretty much always inflamed and it's really hard to train, because your airways close, which makes it pretty hard to breathe ," he said.
Breathing is, as common sense tells you, a very important part of swimming and the lengthy illness has Parker writing off his competitive season this year.
"Pretty much, that means I'm moving along slowly, until I can get them out."
He is only training about five or six hours a week _ about a third of what he would like to put in at the pool if he was fully fit.
There is a chance of him restarting his summer campaign however, with an operation to remove his tonsils scheduled for early January.
Parker's coach of nine years, Dave Girbin, said if he gets an operation early next year then Parker will be able to "wind up" for nationals in Auckland - which will also be a selection meeting for the Beijing Olympics.
"He's done very well just to qualify for the nationals in the 50m fly, it's a huge achievement for a 17-year-old, especially when it must be like trying to breathe with a couple of corks down your throat," Girbin said.
"The commitment you have to make to reach that level is huge, and I don't think many people would understand just how much work you need to do."
Parker has enrolled in Whangarei's School of Emerging Talent (SET) next year so he can fit his schooling around the demands of swimming training
"Even with the extra time I can spend training, it's only going to be a month or so before nationals and I'm not sure that's going to be enough time to get up to speed. But I'll be attending SET for the rest of the year and hopefully I'll be able to step up for the 2009 nationals," Parker said.
"I'll be training morning through to night then and I'll be able to see what I can really do," he said.
The swimmer, who specialises in butterfly events, wants to have a crack at qualifying for an Olympics or a Commonwealth Games but at the moment, medical matters are foremost on his mind.
The other Whangarei swimmers who have qualified for next year's senior nationals to date are: Mark Cooper (50, 100, 200m backstroke), Lana Kennett (50m fly), Ashley Masters (50,100,200m breaststroke), Aaron Miller (200m backstroke), Mark Anderson (50, 100, 200m fly).
The next significant event for these and other Northland swimmers will be the NZ Summer Short Course Championships starting on December 13.