Swimming: Thorpe's fate could befall NZ Olympic hopefuls

1.00pm

New Zealand's prospective Olympic swimmers will suffer the same fate as Australian great Ian Thorpe if they have a false start at the national championships, starting in Auckland tomorrow.

This year, for the first time, New Zealand swimmers have to achieve the Olympic qualifying standards at the national championships.

Anyone who topples from the blocks prematurely in their heat will drown their Olympic chance in that event.

Australians are stunned that Thorpe was disqualified from his 400m freestyle at the Australian championships last Saturday after over-balancing and toppling into the pool. Thorpe is the world record holder in the event.

New Zealand national coach Clive Rushton said the false start rule has been in use in New Zealand, Australia and most countries for years.

"It is a Fina rule that is adopted by most countries and is used at all levels of competition at every meeting, every weekend. Even nine-year-olds are governed by the rule.

"It's brutal. It's ruthless, but that's the rule and everyone is used to it," Rushton said.

"The feeling when they changed the rule was that false starts were caused by a lack of concentration and as soon as they changed it, the number of false starts went to almost zero."

The reason for changing the rule was to speed up meetings.

Rushton said another reason the rule was changed was because some swimmers were deliberately breaking under the old rule to upset an opponent's concentration.

Rushton said the one consolation for New Zealand swimmers this week is that if a swimmer broke in a final, the heat time would be accepted, providing it was fast enough.

"In Australia only times done in finals are accepted," he said.

- NZPA