Swimming: Bray finds challenges in and out of pool

Four years - almost to the day - since testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone, former Olympic swimmer Trent Bray has returned to the pool.

Bray was in action at the North Island masters short-course championships at Tauranga's Greerton Aquatic Centre.

However, he is undecided whether his comeback was a one-off or the start of something more permanent.

Bray tested positive for nandrolone during a routine drugs test in November 1999 but was exonerated six months later when the Court of Appeal upheld a district court ruling that the period of time taken for his urine sample to be tested was too long.

Bray spent $70,000 to clear his name, but the appeal ruling came too late for him to swim in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, so he stayed away from the sport.

The double Commonwealth Games silver medallist re-entered competition on Saturday in Tauranga.

The 30-year-old broke the national 200m freestyle record for 30-34 year-olds, on virtually no concerted build-up.

"I've spent two weeks training for this," he said.

"I've had four sessions in the pool of about 1.5km a session, but I'm unsure yet how far I want to take it."

Bray said he checked out the world masters records in his age division before he drove to Tauranga.

"I'd expect with a bit of training that I could go under the 50m and 100m [world] times. The records are still quick - about equivalent to what it would take to win our open nationals - but they're there [to be broken]."

Bray was enticed into competition by his former Olympic team-mate Jon Winter, a Hawkes Bay swim instructor who races at masters level for the Heretaunga Old Devils.

The plan was to have a crack at the world 4x50m short-course medley record at Greerton, with Bray anchoring the bid on the freestyle leg.

There was one hitch - the team's backstroker did not turn up.

Bray and his brother Davin established their own learn-to-swim academy in Mt Albert two years ago.

The pair employ 10 other coaches and train 1000 swimmers, from newborns to adults, in a week.

"I should have done it years ago," Bray said.

"I swam for 18 years, so that was my university degree, and the buzz you get from watching the kids putting their heads under for the first time to whatever level they reach and the smile it puts on their faces is great.

"I've always had that philosophy that because of our proximity to the ocean, it's vitally important that every child is brought up having a competent background in swimming.

"Now and again I miss competing and the whole atmosphere around it, but I've moved on in life now."

- NZPA