Swimming: Star's coach out

New Zealand's Lauren Boyle. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Swimmer Lauren Boyle has qualified in four events for the world championships in Shanghai in July but the sport's star performer of the moment is said to be upset her coach Mark Regan has not been granted permission to attend.

The Herald on Sunday understands Boyle is distraught the former SNZ head coach will not travel with her. The 23-year-old has no other coach now she is out of the United States collegiate scholarship programme where she has trained and competed with the University of California, Berkeley over the past few years.

Boyle had an outstanding week at the national championships in Auckland, qualifying in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle as well as the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. She broke two national records in the process, lowering her own 400m mark by two seconds and shaving the 800m mark down by 2.27s to 8m 33.30s - eclipsing the oldest remaining mark in the New Zealand record books, that of Philippa Langrell at the 1992 Olympics.

Ten New Zealand swimmers - seven individuals and the relay team - went under the various qualifying standards for this year's world championships and the team for the meeting in Shanghai in July is due to be announced tonight.

SNZ's decision not to take Regan to mentor Boyle adds to an already complicated few months for the governing body. The Sparc review into their high performance operations, led by independent arbiter Chris Ineson, is due at the end of the month. The findings are to be released publicly by mid-May.

SNZ is set to receive $1.65 million from the taxpayer this year, if it can prove it is functioning effectively at the top level. It was to receive funding for six months (up until July) during the review.

Regan would not comment yesterday. However, it is understood his absence in Shanghai is because he is no longer national head coach (he resigned that post after the Delhi Commonwealth Games).

He is senior high performance coach instead but that ranking is not enough in itself to get to Shanghai.

Another reason is thought to be swimming's 90-day rule. Boyle's time in the US may have transgressed that rule, which says a swimmer has to be in the country for at least 85 per cent of the previous 90 days before trials. If Boyle had been in New Zealand, it's understood Regan could have been counted as her coach and taken to Shanghai.

While rules are rules, Boyle's improvement as a swimmer has been marked and it calls into question a system which seems to penalise an athlete successfully trying to better herself by training overseas. Boyle is bound by Swimming New Zealand confidentiality clauses so cannot speak about the issue without risk of breaching the sport's code of conduct.

Until now she has been a 4 x 200m freestyle bronze medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and a silver medallist in the same event at Delhi. Boyle is in the final throes of a business degree which she is set to finish next month before heading back to New Zealand to work with Regan ahead of the Olympics. She wants to graduate this semester so she can concentrate solely on swimming 15 months out from the Games.

Boyle was thrilled with her performance at the national championships. After the 400m, she could hardly believe her 4m 07s time, given she had dedicated so much recent time to study.