Swimming: Daniel Hunter hopes to overcome bad luck and mad management to fulfil Olympic dream

Daniel Hunter. Photo / Photosport

Toss a coin to decide if Daniel Hunter is the most unlucky swimmer this country has produced, or is he the swimmer who has been most dudded by the system.

Either way you wouldn't be wrong.

The 25-year-old sprinter missed qualifying for the Rio Olympics by .04s, a period of time so fleeting it translates to less than 10cm.

But if that was bad luck, at least it was within his control. This year, despite being the No 1 swimmer in the country and breaking his national record at the trials, Swimming New Zealand sent a clearly inferior, development swimmer to the FINA world championships instead.

Hunter had just broken his personal best and set a New Zealand record when winning the 50m freestyle at June's nationals. His 22.27s in the final was .7s ahead of Michael Pickett's in second, but it was the younger North Shore swimmer who represented New Zealand in that event at Tokyo a month later under a developing athletes clause.

Technically, the national organisation didn't break the rules, but this was a clause that could only have been designed by a committee.

The scenario where a less accomplished swimmer could end up representing New Zealand at the world champs is understood to have been brought up at a Swimming New Zealand meeting, but it was dismissed as too unlikely to happen to worry about.

Having just turned 25, Hunter doesn't even believe he has entered his peak years as a sprinter, citing the case of Anthony Ervin, who won gold at the Rio Olympics in the event, 16 years after he had tied with compatriot Gary Hall Jr in Sydney. Russian Alexander Popov was still winning world championships in 50m and 100m at age 31.

"It was a blow. At face value, 100 per cent it was disappointing," says Hunter from his Gold Coast home.

The former Howick-Pakuranga product has relocated to Australia in an attempt to freshen up his training, but perhaps the most impressive feature of the 25 year-old freestyler's approach is that he harbours no bitterness about the circumstances that have seen him miss his specialist events at two pinnacle events.

He can console himself with the fact he still attended this year's FINA world champs in Gwangju as part of the 4x200m relay team, which finished in 14th place after the heats in a time 13s behind the eventual winning time of Australia.

That enabled him to enter the 100m free, where he swam a 49.78s to finish 37th. He was unable to enter the 50m because it was on the same day as his relay, the event he had qualified in.

Hunter doesn't want to dwell on it in part because he believes it is not fair on 16-year-old Pickett, who swam a 22.59s in finishing in a tie for 38th. It is the reason he didn't challenge his non-selection through official channels.

"I didn't want to create the sense that I was upset with him. He's a great young swimmer and I have a lot of time for him."

As it stood, Hunter would have had to lower his personal best by .3s to qualify for the semifinals.

He believes he has those gains in him.