Swimming: Rousing end to nationals

By DAVID LEGGAT


Moss Burmester is the odd man out of New Zealand's Athens-bound Olympic swimmers.

The 21-year-old became the sixth swimmer to bag an individual spot at the August Olympics when he clocked 1m 58.87s in his heat of the 200m butterfly at the Waitakere pool in Henderson yesterday.

The other five - Hannah McLean, Helen Norfolk, Corney Swanepoel, Dean Kent and Cameron Gibson - are members of the formidable North Shore club. Burmester swims for the Otumoetai club in Tauranga and so did it without top-quality swimmers to train alongside.

He went on to retain his national title for a fourth successive year in last night's final, his time of 1m 59.34 just outside the Swimming New Zealand standard of 1m 59.04s for Athens.

He was happy to fulfil his ambition of making an Olympic team.

"I had hoped to go quicker tonight, but maybe there was not quite as much pressure," said Burmester, who was fourth in the Manchester Commonwealth Games in the event.

He trained at the Australian Institute of Sport as part of his buildup, swimming alongside Commonwealth Games gold medallist Justin Norris. Being able to push Norris hard gave Burmester's confidence a real boost.

He admitted he had considered moving to North Shore, but has considerable faith in his coach, Clive Power, and what he called his "support structure" in Tauranga.

Norfolk booked herself a second individual event spot in Athens by winning the 200m freestyle final in Swimming NZ qualifying time.

Norfolk, already in the 400m individual medley in Athens, recorded 2m 01.59s, 0.13s under the minimum required time.

She pipped clubmate Alison Fitch, who led at the 50m mark but could not peg back the flying Norfolk, clocking 2m 02.92s.

It was Norfolk's fourth title at the championships, sitting alongside the 200m and 400m IM and the 400m freestyle.

There had been hopes Toni Jeffs, at 35, could get under the Swimming NZ mark of 25.84s in the 50m freestyle sprint, but she touched in 25.95s. In the tightest finish of the night, she was 0.02s ahead of Nicola Chellingworth.

To give the championships a rousing finish, a New Zealand team turned on a strong display in the 4 x 400m medley, clocking 3m 40.86s.

It was 3.80s under the national record, would have placed them 12th in the world last year and should ensure a trip to Athens.

The quartet included Scott Talbot-Cameron, who led off in the backstroke and, although marginally outside the time needed to get an individual spot in Athens, the effort is likely to earn him a team spot.

The others in the winning four were Gibson, Ben Labowitch and Swanepoel.

In the final event of the night, a New Zealand women's team clocked 4m 09.14s in a 4x100m medley relay.

That would have placed them ninth in the world last year and should guarantee an invitation to Athens. The four were McLean, Liz Coster, Annabelle Carey and Fitch.

HEADING FOR ATHENS

* Hannah McLean: 100m backstroke heat, 1m 01.55s, Olympic A time. 200m backstroke, 2m 13.71s, Swimming New Zealand time.

* Helen Norfolk: 400m individual medley final, 4m 44.65s, Olympic A time. 200m freestyle final, 2m 01.59s, Swimming NZ time.

* Cameron Gibson: 100m backstroke semifinal, 55.39s, Olympic A time. 200m backstroke 2m 00.88s, Swimming New Zealand time.

* Corney Swanepoel: 100m butterfly semifinal, 52.5s, Olympic A time.

* Dean Kent: 200m individual medley, 2m 02.25s, Olympic A time.

* Moss Burmester: 200m butterfly, 1m 58.87s, Swimming New Zealand time.