Swimming: McLean in the fast lane

The preparations are over and Hannah McLean his high hopes for tomorrow's 100m backstroke final. Ryan Pierse / Getty Images

Can anyone stop an Australian women's 'gold-wash' in the Commonwealth Games pool?

Amid the swirl of talk that the Aussies might pocket all 19 women's golds, Hannah McLean has quietly gone about her business and, at least in the hosts' eyes, kept below the radar.

The Auckland backstroker has a theory on why there's plenty of hoopla over Australia's prospects of watery domination. "I think they always like to be talking about as many Australians as possible, and the Australian public want to hear about them," she says.

They might be talking about someone else by the end of these Games - if McLean can take a further step forward from where she left off at the world championships in Montreal last year.

McLean, 24, showed her talents by making the 50m and 100m finals, finishing seventh and fifth respectively and putting up New Zealand record times of 28.9s and 1m 01.14s respectively, and missed the 200m final by a fingernail.

She is ranked joint-first in the Commonwealth over 100m with Australian Giaan Rooney, only three Australians have put up a faster qualifying time than McLean in the short sprint, and she's fourth quickest over 200m.

When she damaged her right ankle at a World Cup meet in Sydney last November, it set her plans back a few weeks. But McLean feels the lost time has been recovered, she appears relaxed, confident and ready to lead New Zealand's challenge. "I'm not looking back at what could have been or what more I could do.

"I'm feeling pretty excited about racing. Training is going well so now I just want to get in and start doing it."

McLean woke on Monday morning with what she thinks was a spider bite on a finger, and a spot of pins and needles in the hand.

"The finger blew up like a sausage and I had to have injections to get the swelling down. You're always getting things thrown at you and you have to be prepared.

"We talked about not getting in a flap over it and keeping going and not deviating from my course."

McLean's swimming career has had its share of highs and lows, but she's plugged on and is now on the cusp of something really significant.

She missed qualifying for the Sydney Olympics 100m backstroke six years ago by 0.17s and pondered whether it was really the life she wanted. She contemplated university but stuck at it.

At the 2003 world championships in Barcelona, McLean jumped the gun in the 4x200m freestyle relay to prevent early qualification for the Athens Olympics. The next day, perhaps fired by frustration, she sped into the world top 10 at 200m. She qualified impressively for Athens but didn't fire once the meet began.

Now she has the chance to lower the boom on Australia's best laid plans, at the Melbourne Aquatic Centre, starting in tomorrow night's 100m final.

The notion of going into a final as favourite, or joint favourite, doesn't faze McLean. "People wonder how you deal with that. For me, it's a result of my performance lifting, and that started last year at the world champs. "I feel it reinforces my confidence. I don't look at it as a negative. People can speculate how they like.

"It's people believing in you and wanting to support you. So I think of it like that, rather than as a pressure coming down on me."

At Manchester four years ago, New Zealand's only successes in the pool were Liz van Welie with a silver in the 400m individual medley, and sprinter Toni Jeffs, who got a bronze in the 50m. McLean, whose busy programme includes the 4x100m medley and 4x200m freestyle relay, talks about the process of the race being the key for her preparation. Visualising victory is part of it.

"The more confident you are in preparation, the more confident you are when it comes to the competition."

Nerves? Certainly there'll be a bit, but nothing she can't control. "For each athlete it's a different concoction of nerves and calmness and fun and excitement, and I'm feeding off the energy of the team. We've got a good thing going on here."

And a final thought on the Australian talk, which effectively dismisses the chances of any women, any country, tipping them over?

"I think they're more aware [of others] than they let on, in terms of what they present to the public."

Time will tell.