Chris Hulme
01-12-2000, 01:54 PM
I, and I know of many other fellow swimmers, are pretty disgusted at the way the N&D Championships have been formatted. We are going the way of the Australians and I just don't think there is any need for it at county and regional level. The swimming now is designed for the young and the good, and any of those in the middle are there as a bonus, or to simply get make more money out of. I am 18 years old and I accept that my time of swimming against people my age is well and truely behind me and that I have to start racing against people a lot older than me. However, my brother, who is a good two years younger than me, has come up into my age group and to be quite frank, although he did final at this year nationals for his age, he doesn't stand a chance of even making a final!!! It is totally unfair because it is very confidence draining. What does he hope to achieve from these championships? The senior swimmers in my squad (City of Newcastle) are all in favour of this at a county level but not at a national level, where it is there turn to see what it is like to experience to been the elite bunch. There is a rumour going around that the trials for the world championships will be held in April 2001, and in with this will be the national championships. So what happened to the national championships been held in June/July? I agree that the Trials should be held in april, after what happened in the Olympics, because it gives the coaches a chance to put there swimmers trough another cycle of work. However, I totally disagree with the national championships been held in April! What does this mean for the swimmers who do not get the chance to represent their country at the championships? It means that we have no more competitions until the Autumn which is a good 6/7 months away, and what do they expect us to do in that time, train flat out??? I personally think that there should be two championships, one in April and the other in July. The other bonus of this is that the ones going to the world championships can go to the nationals without any fear of qualification luming over their heads, see how they are shaping up and try new race tactics etc.
I think we have just gone totally mad after what we saw at the olympics. I think the arrival of Bill Sweetman (?) will help but I also think that we have to start looking more into the nutrition, cross-training etc of the sport. Also, we need the government to put more money into the sport! You see how swimmers matching the world's best in the short cousre competitons (i.e. Foster and Hickman), but in the long course arena we don't fair so well. How many 5o metre pools do we have in the country I ask you? A dozen - 15, perhaps? But how many of them are of a similar standard to the pool used in the sydney olympics? Only ponds forge, if that! This is where we have to start looking at of we want to see our swimmers improve and start bringing back those gold medals!
I think we have just gone totally mad after what we saw at the olympics. I think the arrival of Bill Sweetman (?) will help but I also think that we have to start looking more into the nutrition, cross-training etc of the sport. Also, we need the government to put more money into the sport! You see how swimmers matching the world's best in the short cousre competitons (i.e. Foster and Hickman), but in the long course arena we don't fair so well. How many 5o metre pools do we have in the country I ask you? A dozen - 15, perhaps? But how many of them are of a similar standard to the pool used in the sydney olympics? Only ponds forge, if that! This is where we have to start looking at of we want to see our swimmers improve and start bringing back those gold medals!