Swimming: Burmester tired of fourth placings

Moss Burmester puts it bluntly. He's over being lauded for brave fourth placings on swimming's biggest stage.

World championships, Melbourne, 2007. Olympic Games, Beijing, 2008.

Both times a splash away from joining American superfish Michael Phelps on the 200m butterfly podium.

So, after a three-month gap to reassess his future in the sport, New Zealand's leading swimmer is desperate to get his hands on a medal at the world championships in Rome next month.

"I'm pretty sick of getting fourth. I'd love to be on the podium, that's definitely the aim."

Burmester holds the third-fastest 200m butterfly time in the world this year, his national record 1m 54.15s at the nationals in Christchurch last month.

But this week's furore over world governing body Fina's backflip on high-tech swimsuits, which have led to a flood of world records, has muddied the waters.

Yesterday Fina approved more than 100 suits it had previously banned on the advice of an expert panel, which ruled they had air-trapping characteristics which aided buoyancy. Fina ruled the findings could not be proven and stated the approved suits would be available to all swimmers.

But Burmester, along with Phelps and the leading Australian swimmers, was part of last year's Sydney launch of Speedo's revolutionary LZR-Racer.

Even though it appeared to have been overtaken by other manufacturers' designs, Burmester was staying loyal to his Speedo contract.

"I haven't worn the [new] suits myself so I don't really know. They've mainly been used in Europe and South America, so in New Zealand we haven't really seen a lot of them and what they can do.

"We've just been looking at results on the internet and going 'wow this is what's happening'. It's all pretty confusing."

He said his European rivals had not yet caught up with him, going by recent times. But he would monitor the American trials with interest in the next week and suggested the rest of the world was closing the gap on Phelps.

"It'll be interesting to see the times they're all recording. It looks like he [Phelps] came back strong, but the Olympics showed in some of the races he was nowhere near as dominant as some people thought he'd be. You can't really tell until he posts some times at their trials."

Burmester admitted the swimsuit issue had everyone on edge.

"I was hoping they wouldn't be approved but I didn't really know what was going to happen. We can't really do much about it.

"It might just be an exceptionally quick year. Suddenly all these times are set and it might take years to catch up again. We'll see what happens."

Burmester said he was only looking as far ahead as next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where he will defend the 200m title he won in Melbourne in 2006.

"I haven't set it in stone but I am looking at London. I would like to go again, but I'm not saying definitely yet."

- NZPA