Is Neil our next big swim star?

Chanel College student Neil van Wijk has been labelled as potentially the best swimmer to have come out of the Wairarapa.
And that's from no less an authority than former Olympian Jon Winter, arguably the region's best-ever swimming product with a curriculum vitae which includes a gold medal winning performance in the men's four by 100m relay at the 1995 world championships in Rio de Janeiro, one Olympics (Atlanta 1966) and three consecutive Commonwealth Games appearances, four times a gold medallist in backstroke at the Oceania Grand Prix and a national record holder in butterfly, backstroke and individual medley.
Winter, who is now head coach of the Metro club in Auckland after previous successful coaching stints in Wellington and Hawke's Bay-where his efforts with the Sun Devils saw him named New Zealand's provincial coach of the year- is so impressed by van Wijk that he telephoned the Times-Age yesterday to sing his praises.
"It's not the sort of thing I'd normally do but this kid is something special&..by the time of the London Olympics in four years time he could be anything," Winter said of the 14-year-old breaststroker who has just been selected in a New Zealand squad to compete against Australia in a trans-Tasman tri series to be held over six meets in Australia from July 6 to 12 .
That's high praise indeed from a person of Winter's ilk but it's no idle assessment as he is currently "mentoring" van Wijk during a week-long stay in Auckland.
"Honestly, I doubt whether the Wairarapa has had anyone with this sort of potential&.I know he's a hell of a lot better than I was at the same age," Winter said.
"Obviously he still has a long way to go before that potential is fully realised but as a raw talent&&..well, there wouldn't be any 14-year-olds in the country more impressive than him, and that's in any stroke"
Winter finds it "remarkable" that even allowing for his considerable scope for improvement van Wijk has already made such a huge impact on the national scene this season, having won three gold medals and one bronze at the New Zealand age group championships and placing fifth in two A finals against mainly much older and more experienced opposition at the New Zealand open championships
"You only have to look at what he has achieved and the improvements he can make in both technique and mental preparation and it's easy to see just how good he could be," Winter said of van Wijk.
"Now it's all about the getting the right advice and doing the hard yards and just about anything is possible."
To that end Winter is pleased that when van Wijk returns to the Wairarapa next week he will come under the guidance of Carterton coach Russell Geange, who coached Winter himself for three seasons while he was attending Wairarapa College.
Winter said that while Geange was never one to push himself in the media he had time and again proved he had the coaching expertise to produce swimmers capable of making the big time.
"Obviously I'll continue to take an interest in what Neil is doing but Russell will be the coach&&.I want to make that quite clear,"Winter said, adding that as van Wijk progressed the time could well come when a move from Wairarapa to the likes of Auckland would become necessary because of a need for high quality competition on a regular basis. "I'd like to think he will join up with Metro one day but that's in the future, Russell is the boss now," he said.
Winter also warned not to expect too much from van Wijk in the trans-Tasman series, simply because he was the youngest male in the New Zealand squad and would be competing against swimmers aged up to 17 years of age.
"Breaststroke is not something you learn overnight and for Neil it's more about the experience of international competition than anything else," he said. "Don't get me wrong, he will certainly be competitive but it would be unfair to judge him simply on bare results,that's something everyone needs to keep in mind."