WAIS Distance Swimmers on Camp in Gold Coast

Australia’s future distance swimmers have come together on the Gold Coast this week for a seven-day camp led by two of the world’s best distance swimming coaches in Denis Cotterell and Mark Regan.

The squad contains three WAIS scholarship holders with current national team members Blair Evans and Rhys Mainstone joined by 16 year-old Brooke Wilson.

The group of 19 swimmers will go the distance over 11 pool sessions with the men in particular emulating a week that Grant Hackett would have endured in his prime – swimming some 75km.

Led by Cotterell, who coached Hackett to back-to-back 1500m Olympic gold medals in Sydney and Athens, and Regan who is just back from seven years in Denmark where he coached Lotte Friisto a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle in Beijing, the camp is a clear focus for the best up-and-comers in both pool and open water swimming.

Napoleon who is the current national champion over 1500m, and Hurley a fellow top-ten swimmer in the event are just two of the many hopefuls which Swimming Australia Head Coach Alan Thompson says need to take up the challenge of maintaining Australia’s long-term success in distance swimming.

“We’ve got the best up and coming young distance swimmers here with guys like Ryan Napoleon and Bobby Hurley leading the way in the 1500m freestyle,” said Thompson.

“I see it as they are now taking up the challenge in that event. They are both reasonably inexperienced in the event and have a lot to learn, having both swum less than five 1500s so far. There is a lot of experience still to be gained for them, and that’s why we’ve brought our best distance coaches together with our best distance swimmers.”

Brining both open water and pool swimmers into the one program is also a conscious effort to encourage swimmers to try both disciplines.

“We’ve combined the distance pool events with the open water events as one program and it’s a trend we are seeing around the world with pool and open water swimmers swimming in both events,” said Thompson.

“We’ve seen it ourselves, with swimmers like Hackett, Ky Hurst and more recently Melissa Gorman who have transitioned quite well between the two disciplines with Mel now representing Australia in both the pool and open water at the Olympic Games and World Championships where she won gold in the 5km.”

Interstate and visiting swimmers on the camp have also been joined by their home coaches to increase the knowledge sharing and information on hand, with the aim to take it back in the home programs once the camp concludes.

“Working with Denis Cotterell and Mark Regan the swimmers and coaches get a good insight in the proud history of distance swimming in Australia and the most up-to-date coaching knowledge and practices,” said Thompson.

“There are also benefits in the group training together, because of a lot of them are involved in bigger programs where distance swimming might not be the sole focus of the program.”

The camp concludes on Saturday.

– Swimming Australia