Six swimmers earn development selection

Masterton has upstaged many of the country's biggest clubs by having five swimmers chosen for Swimming New Zealand's national age group development programme and camps.
The selection of Ben Ruback, Charlotte Pope, Neil van Wijk and the brother-and-sister duo of Isaac and Tessa Foote makes Masterton the third most represented club in the 79-strong squad, behind only North Shore and Howick-Pakuranga, both of whom have literally hundreds of age group swimmers on their books.
And adding to the lustre for Wairarapa is that Carterton's Katrina Simmonds will be joining the Masterton quintet as they are given specialised tutelage in all aspects of the sport.
Coach Anna Kitching concedes having five of her Masterton swimmers selected for such a prestige programme came as a pleasant surprise. "I thought we might get three but five, that's pretty special," she said.
Kitching- the mother of Isaac and Tessa Foote - only got into coaching on a serious basis last October when Masterton coach Jiri Mikolas returned home to Slovakia. It was, in fact, Mikolas who persuaded her to take up the challenge and having her children so enthusiastic about the sport was a prime motivating factor.
"I guess it was a bit like being thrown in the deep end in that I was an absolute learner when it came to coaching but with own kids so keen I didn't want to see things fall over, and Jiri kept telling me I could do it so in the end I decided to give it a go."
The big impact Kitching-coached swimmers have had on the national age group scene this season is, of course, testimony to the long hours she has devoted to enhancing her coaching knowledge but, typically, she is quick to deflect any praise for the successes to Mikolas, and the value of a regime based around distance training.
It is nothing unusual, for instance, for Masterton's elite youngsters to do around four to five kilometres in a training session with the idea being to improve their anerobic capacity.
Kitching is a huge believer in the process, so much so that she regularly talks to Mikolas through the courtesy of Skype to ensure she is properly following his lead.
"Obviously it's up to me to judge how each individual is progressing but Jiri still plays a big part in how we operate, he's a great sounding board," she said.
Kitching says the benefit of the Mikolas plan was seen time and again in races featuring Masterton swimmers with the emphasis on distance training often allowing them to find something extra over the concluding stages.
"It develops physical and mental strength and that can be make all the difference in a tight race, our swimmers can generally tough it out better than most," she said.