Swimming: World champs squad to train independently

New Zealand's top swimmers will head in different directions in the leadup to July's world championships in Montreal.

The 18-strong squad plans to come together a fortnight before the world championships, likely to be in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"It's the same time zone and we're guaranteed good weather," national director of coaching Clive Rushton said yesterday.

It is a similar plan to that used in the buildup to last year's Athens Olympics. The swimmers converged on the Greek island of Kefalonia for their final preparation a fortnight before the Games began.

Thirteen of the 18 to be selected from last week's national championships in Wellington are from the North Shore club and are planning a preparation camp in Australia.

World 50m breaststroke recordholder Zoe Baker, who broke her own national record in Wellington, is set for plenty of competition in the Mare Nostrom circuit in Europe in June. That includes meets in Barcelona, Canet, and Monte Carlo.

Some of the squad might contest the transtasman series in June, with meets in Melbourne, Wagga Wagga and Canberra, while Christchurch's Georgina Toomey could get some starts on the US grand prix circuit.

The objective is to build on their Olympic performances.

Rushton drew confidence from last weekend's US trials in Indianapolis.

Butterfly maestro Moss Burmester qualified for the worlds in 1m 57.79s in Wellington, which would have won him the US trial and was fifth-fastest in the world this year.

He finished ranked 12th after the semifinals in Athens. His performance in Wellington would have had him 10th at the Olympics.

Backstroker Hannah McLean's qualifying time of 1min 01.79s in the heats would have been good enough for second in the 100m backstroke, behind world recordholder Natalie Coughlin and 12th in Athens. McLean's time put her sixth in the world this year.

North Shore's head coach Jan Cameron will be in charge of the team at Montreal, which runs from July 17-31, as well as next year's Melbourne Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific championships.

Team manager for those events will be Auckland's Mark Saunders, with other coaching positions to be finalised in the next few days.