Swimming: Norfolk in best shape yet

MELBOURNE - For the first time since Athens 2004, Helen Norfolk will enter an event without injury or ill-health.

It's why she doesn't keep herself awake at night having nightmares about the twin threats of Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll, Australia's medley queens.

The 24-year-old North Shore swimmer has been delighted with her lead-up to the Games - she was in camp in Geelong with the rest of the team last week - and believes she will peak by Thursday, when she makes a splash at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre for her 200m individual medley heats.

Norfolk will also swim the gruelling 400m IM and is a member of the women's freestyle relay team.

The swim team enters the athletes' village for the first time today after the coaches decided their preparation would be best served away from Melbourne.

"There's a really good feeling in the team," Norfolk said. "We had such a good set-up [in Geelong] with two great outdoor 50m pools."

But you can have all the outdoor pools and all the training in the world but nothing has boosted the confidence of this New Zealand team more than their showing at the world championships at Montreal last year.

It set a benchmark but it also created pressure. Where New Zealand once hoped, it now expects.

"It's good pressure though," Norfolk said. "What we achieved in Montreal [eight finals] was one thing but we're all confident we can take that a step further."

That would mean medals, obviously.

"Definitely. Everyone here has medals on their minds. This time it is realistic."

A small step on from Montreal, where she finished one place outside the final of the 200m IM, should not be difficult for Norfolk.

She points to her knee and two small scars that are the legacy of a torn medial meniscus. It was still hurting in Montreal on some of the different kicks she has to perform as a medley swimmer.

A better pointer to her form was her third-fastest time in the heats of the 400 IM at the Australian nationals earlier this year, a performance that caused Jan Cameron to offer that she was in "great shape".

Cameron can take a lot of the credit for moulding Norfolk into a hardened competitor after the swimmer's career looked like it was treading water a few year's ago.

Norfolk went to the Kuala Lumpur Games as a 16-year-old with a huge future, headed to Sydney in 2000 but missed the team to Manchester four years ago.

She moved from Christchurch to Cameron's school at the Millennium Stadium. Since then her career has been reborn.

As well as the medley, Norfolk is pretty handy at freestyle. Swimming the first leg of the 4x200m final at Montreal, Norfolk beat Rebecca Perrott's national record that had stood for 27 years.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY