Swimming: Swimmers hope chances not sunk

Kane Radford swims tomorrow for a place at the Olympics. Photo / Simon Watts

As the swimming world championships commence in Russia tomorrow, the Olympic hopes of several New Zealand swimmers remain up in the air.

As the Herald on Sunday reported a fortnight ago, the date for the New Zealand Open (which doubles as the 2016 qualification event) was shifted almost a month forward recently and will now start on March 28.

This was despite the timing earlier being fixed in a four-year plan and it has complicated matters for the Kiwi swimmers based at US Colleges.

The 2016 NCAA championships - the most important collegiate event - is on March 24-26 (men) and March 17-19 (women).

Factoring in the travel, that gives swimmers little time to prepare for their most important swim of the cycle, and make the adjustment from the short course (25m) to Olympic length (50m).

"I am devastated," said freestyler Matthew Hutchins at the time. "Our [college] season finishes two days before the Open and we now have to travel 20 hours and compete the next day. It was previously over a month."

Backstroker Natasha Lloyd added: "Originally having a month post-NCAAs of long-course training would have been a fantastic lead up, but now we are left with a few days to cope with the massive adjustment from 25 yards to [50] metres."

At the time, Swimming New Zealand said they would work with US-based swimmers to try find a solution but their fate remains unresolved and unclear.

It is believed SNZ have discussed placing some events towards the end of the NZ Open week - to give certain swimmers a few more days to prepare - but this could be viewed as discriminatory.

It has also been suggested swimmers could qualify at another FINA-approved meet, but the international calendar for 2016 won't be released until November. Some of the affected swimmers have apparently been told they could attempt to qualify in December - but that would mean a significantly shorter training block.

SNZ have also said they are currently unsure whether there will be any opportunities to qualify beyond the New Zealand Open.

It's understood that affected swimmers have been encouraged to apply under SNZ's "extenuating circumstances" clause. If they attend the New Zealand Open and perform below par, selectors will also be able to make decisions on a case-by-case basis about how negatively affected the swimmers were by the scheduling challenge.

However, that might also present problems, as it entails a subjective interpretation of what an athlete may have been capable of.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's participation in this year's world championships begins tomorrow in Kazan. Kane Radford will compete in the 10km open water swim with Charlotte Webby competing in the women's event the following day. The top 10 swimmers in both races will qualify for Rio with a further nine places to be decided at a second event in Portugal next year. The pool competition begins on August 2, with much of New Zealand's focus on Lauren Boyle, who claimed three bronze medals in Barcelona two years ago.