Clubs clamour for swimmer

Masterton swimming star Neil van Wijk was "head hunted" after two standout performances at the New Zealand open championships in Waitakere City last week.
At just 14 the Chanel College student was comfortably the youngest competitor to make his way through the preliminary heats and into the finals of both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events and his two fifth placings did not go unnoticed.
Neil's mother Gaylene confirmed yesterday that at least three clubs from outside Wairarapa expressed interest in her son joining up with them, but the good news for the local swimming fraternity is that the talented youngster won't be leaving them any day soon.
"Yes, there were a few clubs head- hunting him but quite honestly we're quite happy where we are," Gaylene van Wijk said.
"Obviously the important thing is to do what is best for Neil and right now we don't see any need for him to move elsewhere."
Making the two finals at the national opens came just a couple of weeks after van Wijk had turned in a series of headline efforts at the New Zealand age group championships in Christchurch.
There his medal haul of three golds (all of them in record times) and one bronze medal in the boys 14yr section stamped him as one of the shining lights of an event which saw the country's best youngsters up against competition from Japan, Australia and New Caledonia. The effort was made even more mind-boggling by the fact it came after only two seasons of competitive swimming.
It was the value of gaining further experience which saw van Wijk travel to Auckland for the open championships and to place as high as fifth in two finals was a further illustration of his huge potential.
His best performance there came in the 100m breaststroke where he was fifth fastest qualifier in the heats with a time of 1min 8.43secs and then clocked a record time of 1min 8secs for his age group in the final. North Shore sensation Glen Synders, 20, won the event and those behind placed from second to fourth were aged either 18 or 17.
Snyders was again triumphant in the 200m breaststroke final, a race in which van Wijk's fifth placing came in a time of 2min 30.17secs, just slightly faster than the 2min 30.22 secs he had recorded when the seventh fastest qualifier from the heats.
The third event in which van Wijk was entered, the 50m breaststroke, saw him later disqualified for a starting infringement, but his "time" of 31.26secs would have been a personal best had it counted.
Selection for the Commonwealth Games in 2010 is now being touted as a possible objective for van Wijk, who has been asked to participate in training sessions with New Zealand's high performance squad over the next couple of months.
For van Wijk's current coach, Anna Kitching, his latest results are simply confirmation of his enormous promise and underline the importance of his future progress being carefully managed.
"There's no question he has the potential to go right to the top but you have to keep in mind he is still very young. We wouldn't want to burn him out," she said.
"The challenge is to make decisions which allow his potential to be fully developed and that's where the focus has to be now."