Swimming: Childhood's golden dream becomes glittering reality

Bronwen Burmester has a picture-perfect recollection of her son's artistic talents when he was a boy.

"At intermediate school Moss did this picture of himself and his goals in life, the things that were important to him," she said yesterday.

"In the picture he had a gold medal round his neck. He hung that on his bedroom wall and we only found out just before the Athens Olympics that he used to look at it every morning, and that's what got him out of bed."

This isn't the Olympics, but the gold medal was hanging round the 25-year-old's neck on the banks of the Yarra River in central Melbourne yesterday as proof that if you persevere long enough, good things can happen.

Burmester is now the Commonwealth Games 200m butterfly champion, and record-holder after his outstanding 1m 56.64s swim to put New Zealand on the medal table and in an event Australia expected they would win through Travis Nederpelt.

It was a touching sight yesterday when Burmester arrived after his morning 50m butterfly heat. He had had time only to give his mother a brief hug at poolside on Thursday night after the medal ceremony, and had not seen father Greg at all.

His face lit up when he saw his mother 40 metres across Federation Square opposite the landmark Flinders St railway station. She ran across to be smothered in a proper hug to make up for the hasty one the night before.

The Burmester clan, brothers, aunts, mates, all 14 of them and several with gold-painted fingernails, were on hand yesterday. There was a photo call during which bemused passersby could be heard saying a variety of versions of, "Look, there's a New Zealander and he's won a gold medal".

Fathers pushed their kids forward to get a look. Adult necks craned for a glimpse of the medal, and when he lifted it up for the phalanx of photographers, the crowd broke into spontaneous applause.

At one point Burmester told a small girl standing in front of him he was a New Zealander, took the medal off so she could pose for a family snap. It was a delightful, natural scene.

It would be no surprise to discover Burmester has water, not blood, running through his veins.

His early years revolved round the stuff. He was born into an aquatic family. At 5 he swam 50m in a Rotorua pool, joined the Otumoetai swim club in Tauranga, did summer swim training until he hooked up with the renowned Clive Power in his early teens.

He had 10 years with Power and, for all the speed advancements he's made since joining Jan Cameron's powerful North Shore programme, it is clear Burmester has a high regard and total respect for Power's role in his development.

But back to those formative years ...

"From early intermediate age he was often faster than kids his own age," Bronwen recalled. "And his nature is to try and win at everything. He loves a challenge."

He represented New Zealand at surf lifesaving and underwater hockey. Again, water.

So, having seen their boy well beaten in the morning heats by Nederpelt, did their belief ever waver?

"I just look at his body language," his mother said. "I felt he looked comfortable and he texted me and said he was very happy."

Burmester went out hard in the final and he has had a tendency to die in the closing stages. Not this time. He had split times for each of the four laps in mind.

Greg Burmester, high above the pool, was twitchy at his son's first turn.

"We knew what the splits were that he wanted. The first one I thought was a little quick, the second he was back on track.

"It's such a technical race you've got to leave enough in the tank to bring it home. The third leg [was] perfect. They were never going to catch him."

And a mother's first emotion at her son's moment of triumph?

"It's your race. You did it," said Bronwen.

The biggest upside of the win may be in mental rather than physical terms.

Burmester is off to the world short-course championships in Shanghai next month. Beijing and the 2008 Olympics beckon.

The world record of American Michael Phelps is 1m 53.9s. There's much to be done, but Burmester, who is studying for a bachelor of design at Massey University campus at Albany, can now see a clear line to the Olympics.

"This will definitely give me a lot more confidence. When I go to these major events, I now know - like I found last night - that you can't worry about other competitors.

"I've got to focus on my own splits and what I want to do. If I hit those correctly, they'll give me the results.

"I'm confident I can go faster. If I didn't think I could I wouldn't go on swimming. I definitely believe there is a lot more there."

Burmester remembers the day he decided to move to North Shore.

"At the time it was a really hard decision but it paid off. I can't take anything away from the work I did with Clive and the Harlequins club.

"But the [Millennium] Institute is amazing. There's a large group of us and we all push each other. I've got a bit of company and that was one of the main reasons I shifted. I was by myself and struggling at times."

Burmester carries on a remarkable tradition in the event. Dave Gerrard won the 200m butterfly at Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966; Anthony Mosse doubled up in Edinburgh in 1986 and Auckland four years later; then Danyon Loader grabbed gold at Victoria, Canada, in 1994, two years before cementing himself as the greatest swimmer New Zealand has produced with his double gold in the 200m and 400m freestyle at the Atlanta Olympics.

Burmester has spoken to all three. Mosse and Loader were at the pool and Gerrard was on the phone yesterday morning.

So what's the first thing that runs through your mind at a moment of supreme exhilaration, when the goal is reached of being the best, of completing a job of work that's taken years?

"I looked at where all the New Zealanders were sitting," he said.

"They've given me huge support, and you tend to forget all the hard work you've done at that moment. But those are the times that have got you through.

"The Olympics are definitely another step up, but this is awesome."

Burmester got back to the athletes' village late on Thursday night. Then he couldn't sleep. It was pretty surreal. No matter what I did I couldn't get my mind to stop."

Perhaps he was thinking back to that picture drawn by a determined 11-year-old hand all those years ago."

Moss Burmester

Born: June 19, 1981, Hastings

Coaches: Clive Power, Jan Cameron

Clubs: Otumoetai, North Shore

Commonwealth rankings: 200m butterfly 1st; 100m butterfly 4th

Commonwealth record: 200m butterfly 1min 56.64s.

Olympics: Athens 2004

Commonwealth Games: Manchester 2002, Melbourne 2006