Swimming: Final competition for NZ swimmers

New Zealand's Olympics-bound swimmers will have their final shakedown before next month's Sydney Games at the national winter championships in Dunedin this week.

Assistant coach Jan Cameron said the championships, three weeks out from the Sydney Games, did not signal the end of months of toil for the four Olympic-bound swimmers from her North Shore club.

"They are still in hard work, and will be training through this meet," she said.

"While the other elite swimmers will taper for the winter championships, the Olympic group will train through this meet."

Cameron said she expects her North Shore quartet of Steven Ferguson, Dean Kent, Monique Robins and Scott Talbot-Cameron to record close to their best this week despite the workload.

"They will need to be very close in converted times at this short course meet to the Olympic qualifying times," Cameron said. "I'm pleased where they are at and I expect them to swim fast and tough. They will use the meet to perfect their skills and use it for important quality race practice.

The North Shore quartet returned last weekend from a training stint in Queensland, where they trained and raced against some of Australia's Olympians.

"The change of environment was excellent. They got to swim outdoors in a warm climate, and got to train and race against swimmers quicker than them. They are tops in New Zealand, so it was good for them to train in a competitive environment with swimmers their equal or better."

They face a busy schedule at the meet, competing in five or six events involving the full Olympic schedule of heats, semifinals and finals.

Two other members of the team, Helen Norfolk and Jonathan Duncan, arrived in New Zealand yesterday with national coach Brett Naylor after training at altitude in Arizona and New Mexico.

Duncan, aged 18, believed the beneficial effects of training at altitude would not fully hit home until he enters the pool at Sydney in about three weeks.

"Hopefully, it will really start to help when I get to Sydney. I'm not expecting too much this week because it takes a while to adjust," he said.

The New Zealand team go into a week-long camp in Auckland on September 5 before heading to Sydney.

- NZPA

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