Swimming: Onwards and upwards to Delhi

Melissa Ingram says she's learned from last year's setbacks. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

Here's a line Melissa Ingram must have dreamed of being able to say a year ago: "I've had an unhindered preparation and managed not to get sick through the New Zealand winter."

Last year, Ingram's swimming world fell apart when she missed qualifying for the world championships in Rome by half a second and was hit hard by blood-iron level deficiencies.

She lost her performance enhancement grant from Sparc and, with it, free access to sports science and medicine facilities.

A three-month break from swimming left her pondering her future in the sport.

Now, reinvigorated and relishing working with coach Scott Talbot-Cameron, the North Shore backstroker is in strong form and looking to continue that in the Pan Pacific championships, which start in California next week.

Ingram swam faster at the Mare Nostrum series in Canet, France, in June than at April's national championships. Now, as the 25-year-old puts it, it is "onwards and upwards".

She doesn't dwell on events last year, other than to observe that she believes she's learned from what happened and has emerged tougher from the experience.

The partnership with Talbot-Cameron is paying dividends.

"I started working with Scott last October and I've been consistently close to my best times," she said yesterday.

"He's good technically and seems to have good communication in that respect.

"I'm getting to be one of the older swimmers and I just find we work well together.

"He lets me have good input into what I'm doing and listens to what I say."

Ingram, a 200m backstroke specialist, was second in Canet to the world champion, China's Jing Zhao, only run down in the last 10m.

Her time of 2min 10.51s was encouragingly close to her national mark of 2:09.13.

And she's getting used to life post the body suits, now thrown out, which for a time turned the world's best swimmers into dolphins and ripped up the record books.

"You're prepared to be not swimming as fast as you would with a suit on.

"But it's really just about being really fit.

"I've done a huge amount of training, and more of a focus on body weight and staying lean, because you don't have the buoyancy of the suit to help you."

Ingram and the rest of the New Zealand squad are fine tuning preparations for October's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

In the case of Southland medley specialist Natalie Wiegersma has her sights set on speed and endurance.

Indeed, her coach, Jeremy Duncan, quipped that her best event was neither the 200 nor the 400m IM, "but I'd be suited to a 300m event. I don't quite have the endurance or the speed, so that's something we're working on."

Wiegersma, 20, is a driven young woman whose determination means travelling about 25 minutes each way twice a day to Invercargill and back home to Dacre, the small township on the road north to Dunedin, for training.

"It takes up quite a bit of petrol, but it's worth it," she said. "I love training in Invercargill, wouldn't swap it for anything."

She's the national 200m IM record holder at 2:12.38, but former Olympian Helen Norfolk still holds the longer distance best mark at 4:39.07.

Wiegersma has produced the 15th best time at 200m IM this year; the 18th quickest in the 400m IM.

However, take out 10 of those ahead of her on the shorter distance this year as they are ineligible for the Commonwealth Games, and the 13 swimmers in front of her over 400m, and her prospects of making the rostrum in India look rosier.

"My preparations have been going pretty well, I've been hitting target times my coach and I are working on," Wiegersma said.

These are steps along the way to New Delhi. She has times in mind she wants to achieve, but keeps them to herself.

"But if I can swim personal bests in Delhi, with different food, surrounds, language and climate, then under those circumstances I'd be really happy with myself."

You can take Wiegersma out of Southland but there's no mistaking where she is happiest.

The young swimmer has been doing a Bachelor of Applied Media Arts at Southern Institute of Technology. If things work out as she hopes, she might get a job back at her old alma mater, James Hargest High School, as an art teacher.

But for now, she has only Delhi on her canvas.

NEW ZEALAND SQUAD
* Women: Lauren Boyle (North Shore), Melissa Ingram (North Shore), Amaka Gessler (Christchurch), Tash Hind (Wellington), Penelope Marshall (North Shore), Hayley Palmer (North Shore), Emily Thomas (North Shore), Natalie Wiegersma (Southland), Cara Baker (Australia-based).

* Men: Daniel Bell (North Shore), Moss Burmester (North Shore), Gareth Kean (Wellington), Carl O'Donnell (North Shore), Glenn Snyders (North Shore).

Hitting the water
* What: PanPac swimming championships, starting in Irvine, Orange County, about 70km from Los Angeles, next Thursday (NZT).

* Who: New Zealand have a team of 13 competing at the high-calibre event, which sits behind the Olympics and world championships in quality.

* Why: It's a last chance to fine tune preparations for October's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.