KEY POINTS:
National coach Jan Cameron is pushing for young swimmers to develop a toughness to compete at the top level.
"We've got to impress on all of our swimmers that they must learn to swim fast in the morning, and then go faster again," Cameron said at the end of the national youth and open championships in Christchurch yesterday.
"While there's a heat, semifinal and final situation at major meets such as the Olympics and world championships, the fact is if you don't swim your best in the morning, you don't get another swim.
"I'd like to see more heat put on our young swimmers so they know there's just one chance in the morning to make a final."
Cameron was impressed with the developing sprint talent and some tough performances from the stars at the championships.
National records were broken several times in 50m freestyle and butterfly heats and finals at the QEII Pool.
Cameron said it was encouraging to see the sprinters competing strongly which augered well for the future.
She was also delighted with the efforts from the fatigued elite squad after their return from the world championships. "They really stood up and performed. They swam tough and showed not only that they had real pride in their own performances but it was a great example to the young swimmers here."
Cameron said it was a useful experiment to test the swimmers on the new format to be used at the Beijing Olympics with heats in the evening and finals in the morning.
"That's something we will need to continue to work on, mostly in how we handle recovery and how swimmers adapt their pre-race routines to the morning."
But she wants a revamp of the open championships, perhaps going back to a simple morning heat and evening final.
Several North Shore club swimmers were untroubled in claiming titles yesterday including Liz Coster winning the 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly, Moss Burmester in the 200m butterfly and Helen Norfolk in the 200m freestyle.
There were also some fingertip finishes with England's Commonwealth record holder, Darren Mews, holding off the challenge of North Shore's Glenn Snyders by .01s to win the 100m breaststroke.
Corney Swanepoel (North Shore) upset predictions to edge his world championship teammate Mark Herring (West Auckland Aquatics) by .01s to win the 100m freestyle.
Napier's Callum Joll held off the youthful charge from John Zulch (North Shore) and Kurt Bassett (Laser Mt Eden) to win the 50m backstroke while Capital's Kelly Bentley was too strong over the final 100m for Annabelle Carey (Aquagym) in the 200m breaststroke.
Dunedin's Bryn Murphy dominated the 1500m freestyle finishing well clear of his Waves clubmate, Shane Patience.
- NZPA
