Swimming: Burmester calls it quits

Moss Burmester competes at the Commonwealth Games in October. Photo / Getty Images

Former New Zealand Commonwealth Games champion Moss Burmester has hung up his togs.

The long-serving butterfly specialist has decided against sticking around for a crack at the London Olympics following a recent dip in form and dissatisfaction with elements of the high performance programme at Swimming New Zealand (SNZ).

Burmester, 29, failed to reach a final at last month's Commonwealth Games in India and indicated then he would carefully consider whether to campaign for London or retire and focus on other interests, including the completion of a business degree.

With funding support likely to be reduced, he opted for the latter.

"I'm still passionate about swimming and I still enjoy it but I can't see myself being able to commit 100 percent properly to it to do it justice," he told TV3.

Burmester won a 200m butterfly gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and followed it with a tremendous fourth placing at the Beijing Olympic Games two years later, when he jousted for three lengths with American star Michael Phelps and set a New Zealand record in the process.

He took a break in the Maldives after the Delhi Games while he considered his future and skipped the national short course championships at Mt Maunganui earlier this month.

Burmester wouldn't discuss specifics but said said he had become frustrated with the governance of swimming in New Zealand.

"The (SNZ) environment is not conducive to the swimmers being able to perform at their best," he told the Sunday Star-Times.

"There's a lot of mistrust in there."

Other leading New Zealand swimmers agreed with his stance, he said, but didn't want to rock the boat.

"They would be threatened if they did. They wouldn't be picked in teams and they'd have their funding taken away," he said.

"I know from a swimmer's point of view, it's hard for us to talk out. To say what's actually happening. You feel like your head would be on the chopping block."

Burmester's announcement comes amid reports SNZ is about to alter its coaching structure and that Australian Mark Regan has resigned as head coach.

Regan, who headed the team at New Delhi, will reportedly move back to coach full-time at Auckland's Millennium Institute rather than continue his national role, The Herald on Sunday reported.

- NZPA