Swimming: British Olympian to take over NZ squad

By JULIE ASH

British Olympic squad coach Clive Rushton will take over from Brett Naylor next month as coach of the New Zealand team.

Naylor finished as coach of the national team after last year's Sydney Olympic Games but it has taken until this week to find a replacement.

Swimming New Zealand chief executive Catriona McBean said Rushton had vast experience in coaching, sports science and swimming management.

"The foundation work Brett Naylor introduced during his term is now in a stage to be developed further and we believe Clive has the skills to do so," she said.

Rushton, who has also coached in Canada and Greece, has been appointed for two years and will be based in Wellington.

Naylor said the appointment of an overseas coach explained why the selection process had taken a long time.

"It is very hard if you are not physically watching someone doing the job.

"SNZ [Swimming New Zealand] were very careful about checking out all the facts."

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

"I have thoroughly enjoyed it," Naylor said.

"They [the NZ squad] are great kids and working with such motivated people is no problem."

He will operate in a caretaker role over the next few weeks.

"I have committed myself to helping teach him [Rushton] the ropes," Naylor said.

"After that I haven't really got a plan."

Rushton was previously national senior coach for British swimming and was captain of the Great Britain team at the 1972 Olympics.

His first experience of New Zealand's leading swimmers and coaches will come at the national winter championships in Rotorua next month.