Swimming: Loader's hopes take dive

SYDNEY - Danyon Loader's Olympic Games hopes were all but extinguished after a mediocre swim at the Australian championships in Sydney yesterday.

However, New Zealand coach Brett Naylor believed the flame of hope was still flickering for the 1996 Olympic double gold medallist despite his below-par time of 56.55s in the 100m butterfly heats.

Loader had his last realistic chance to reach the games, but obviously knew the time, 2.45s outside the games qualifying mark and almost 1s slower than he managed last month, was nowhere near his capabilities.

As is often his way, Loader politely refused to speak to New Zealand journalists after the race, his last at the championships, following a poor 200m freestyle effort on Sunday.

Naylor said that, like freestyler Trent Bray, Loader could reach his third Olympics by producing a miraculous time, probably in freestyle, at the Oceania championships in Christchurch from June 21 to 24.

"The ball's in Danyon's court," Naylor said. "Initially he wasn't available for Christchurch but he has said he wants to go, which is encouraging.

"He has the opportunity at that meet, and although he will need to go a lot quicker than our current standards, I maintain that he's capable of doing it."

Despite his optimism, Naylor may have let slip what most observers were thinking after watching Loader this week.

"It is a big disappointment," he said. "It's sad that someone of that calibre is not representing us."

He was unsure whether the 25-year-old was motivated enough to complete the hard training required to perform well at an Olympics as in Atlanta four years ago.

"He appears to be in pretty good spirits. But he's very stand-offish as usual, and a lot of elite athletes are like that. It's always hard to say with him.

"For Danyon, today's swim was pretty average. It didn't look like he was going out after it the way I thought he would. He's capable of better," said Naylor, before being asked whether he was surprised Loader hadn't swum faster this week.

"I guess I am, because he's such a gifted athlete," he replied.

Loader had the second-worst reaction off the starting blocks of the 54 swimmers in the heats, but still produced the 19th-fastest time.

Aucklander Nick Sheeran was far more impressive in an earlier heat, his personal best time of 54.51s just 0.41s outside the games mark, and the seventh-quickest in the heats.

Naylor said Sheeran, who was impressive over 200m earlier this week, would join Elizabeth Van Welie and Monique Robins as swimmers who had yet to produce games qualifying times but could possibly be added to the New Zealand Olympic swimming team, which presently stands at seven.

Medley swimmer Helen Norfolk delighted Naylor with a personal best time of 2m 16.45s in the women's 200m backstroke, the second-best time in the heats. Hannah McLean was 10th quickest in 2m 18.94s.

In the men's 50m freestyle, Brad Herring swam 23.93s (26th-fastest) and Scott Cameron managed 24.20s (35th).

-NZPA

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