Swimming's senior pro Melissa Ingram knows that patience is a virtue.
The 26-year-old will have to wait for the penultimate individual race on the final night of the six-day New Zealand Championships for her signature event, the 200m backstroke.
A long and exhausting build-up has her buoyed with confidence forthe championships, starting tomorrow at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson, that double as the Olympic trials.
Ingram has already gone under the qualifying time for the London Olympics in the 200m backstroke, but that is not all that is in her sights this week.
"The 200m backstroke is always at the end," she said "I definitely have to make sure I stay focussed throughout the meet but I've got a few key races earlier in the week. I am going to have a crack at the 100m backstroke and the 200m freestyle as well."
She faces the 100m backstroke on Monday where her best is only 0.1sec outside the qualifying mark for London, while she is also keen to snare a place among the fastest four in the 200m freestyle to secure a spot in the women's relay which has already qualified for London.
"It has been a really long, solid build-up over about eight months. I have had a couple of stints of competition so I am really excited to finally have a full taper and hit-out at nationals.
"It has been really good. I have remained illness and injury free so I have put in a lot of hard training. So now it's a matter of resting up and maintaining technique, working on good skills and hoping that it all comes together."
Ingram has learned to be patient and persistent through the ups and downs of her long international career that stretches back over a decade, beginning when she was a finalist in the 200m backstroke at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Now she has London in her sights, meeting the qualifying standard at last year's world championships in Shanghai, although Ingram aims to go faster next week.
"It is a bit of a security blanket in a way but also I am not complacent having done the time. There are some up-and-comers who can obviously knock me off so I am attacking it like any other trials really.
"It definitely means you can concentrate a bit more on the way you swim the race and there is a bit of security in the back of your mind but generally you have to attack it like you would any other time."
The team for the London Olympics named after the last session of the championships next Friday.
