Swimming: Naylor to quit as swim coach after Olympics

Swimming New Zealand is convinced that departing national coach Brett Naylor will still have a role to play in developing the sport, despite his decision to quit the post after the Sydney Olympics.

Naylor, who has two of the Olympic team, Jonathan Duncan and Helen Norfolk, at a high-altitude camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, said yesterday that a lack of funding was one of the biggest reasons for being unable to carry on.

"There hasn't been the support there and the schemes I wanted to put in place weren't going to happen because of a lack of funding," Naylor said.

His contract expires at the end of October, but Swimming NZ chief executive Catriona McBean was confident Naylor would continue coaching in some form.

"If he chooses not to apply for the position he's still going to be poolside, preparing swimmers like he was before he was national coach," McBean said.

"We're not losing his talent at all - he's just refocusing where he's going to put his energies, and if he chooses to put them poolside, that's great."

While Naylor admitted that more funding was there for the next 12 months, it was not enough to persuade him to re-apply for the position.

The Sports Foundation last month allocated $280,000 for the next financial year - an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year.

McBean attributed the rise to Naylor's efforts. "That's purely indicative of the direction Brett has started. We're focusing on the future - Athens in 2004.

"Brett has taken swimming from a position of transition from the old guard to the new guard. It has been difficult - there's no doubt about that," McBean said.

"His work in that period - having a squad of nine swimmers going to the Games - is indicative of what he has been focusing on in his position as national coach."

She was surprised to hear Naylor had had enough but said the decision was unlikely to have a detrimental effect on the swim team's preparations for Sydney.

Naylor was the first fulltime national coach, succeeding Mark Bone, who had the role on a part-time basis when he took the team to the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998.

McBean said Swimming NZ was now reviewing the role of national coach and whether it would remain a fulltime post.

Naylor said he felt no resentment, just frustration at being hamstrung by a lack of money.

- NZPA