Burmester a real Beijing hope

Romain Buwh · #1 (**permalink**) IP: 194.78.17.146 30-10-07, 08:42 PM

"I tried everything – cricket, rugby, field hockey, underwater hockey."
It would have been cool to keep this one...

From : Burmester a real Beijing hope - Sport - The Press

"Saturday, 27 October 2007

Burmester a real Beijing hope
For the first time since Danyon Loader's prodigious feats at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, New Zealand has a realistic chance of a medal in the swimming pool at Beijing in nine months.

In the past year Moss Burmester has catapulted himself into medal contention with two record-breaking swims that have elevated him to sixth in the world in the 200m butterfly, from where he should be scrapping over the minor medals behind the man who should emerge from the Games as the greatest swimmer in Olympic history – Michael Phelps.
Seventeen months ago Burmester won the gold medal at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games with a swim that thrust him into the top 10 in the world in one of the sport's most gruelling events.

A year later, in the same city, Burmester stepped beyond the Commonwealth to world recognition with a powerful last 50m in the world championship final that lifted him to fourth and within 0.13sec of the bronze medal and 0.22sec of the silver medal.

Burmester smashed the Commonwealth record and took 1.29sec off his previous best time in the semi-finals and final but more importantly proved to himself that he was competitive with the best in the world.

However it could all have been different for Burmester. Three years ago, after the Athens Olympics, Burmester had a case of what he calls the "post-Olympic blues".

For 18 months before Athens his life was focused on the Mediterranean city – first qualifying for the Games, and then reaching the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly.

Perched on a chair in the foyer of the Millennium Institute, knocking back cream rice straight from the tin – immediate sustenance after another demanding training session – Burmester says that by now he might have been pursuing a career outside swimming.

Leading into the Athens Olympics Burmester was still training in his hometown, Tauranga, with coach Clive Power.

"Athens and the Olympics were my single goal, they were what I was training for. It required a big step up for me just to qualify, but I was pretty focused and determined because the Olympics are the pinnacle."

Burmester broke the 2min barrier in his specialist event for the first time at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 and then by only five one-hundredths of a second. He would have to improve half a second at the New Zealand trials to get to Athens.

He qualified and at Athens swam 1min 58.09sec but was disappointed with the time.

He returned to Tauranga and that's when his career reached a crossroad.

"I had a case of the post-Olympic blues. When I was 11 I wrote down that I wanted to go to the Olympics and I had finally achieved my goal. I thought `what do I do now?'

"I was training by myself in Tauranga and that was difficult. I decided that if I was going to continue I needed to be training with people my own age."

That was when Burmester made the decision to move to Auckland to join the elite North Shore squad coached by Jan Cameron and Thomas Ansorg.

"It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I was leaving home and my coach, Clive Power, who got me to the point where I was. I felt like I was betraying him. He had put so much time into coaching me.

"It was not made any easier because we didn't part on the best of terms."

Power had taken Burmester and others to the US four times over the years as part of their development and that exposure to some of the best in the world taught Burmester what was needed to be one of the best.

In late 2004 Burmester, feeling he had not achieved what he wanted, moved to Auckland to join the North Shore squad.

The regrets are long gone as Burmester has flourished.

He has a Commonwealth Games gold medal, a Commonwealth record, a world short-course silver medal and in Melbourne at the world championships last March became one of a handful of 200m butterfly swimmers to better 1min 56sec.

Burmester improved a massive 0.92sec in that world championship final.

Phelps in that race was in another league. He smashed his own world record by 1.7sec swimming 1min 52.09sec, one of the greatest swims in the sport.

After the world championships Burmester and coach Cameron joined Phelps and other members of the Wolverine Swimming Club at a camp at the Olympic Training Centre in at Colorado Springs. It gave Burmester a chance to train at high altitude, but also to observe the greatest swimmer on the planet.

"It was beneficial being able to see what they do in training. They are not doing anything that we aren't. It reinforced that we are doing the right things."

Seven weeks ago Burmester started the long build-up to Beijing secure in the knowledge that his training and planning were on the right track for the next big challenge of his career in nine months.

Next weekend he will swim in a World Cup short-course meeting in Australia and is likely to swim two more in Europe later next month.

They will be ideal preparation for the New Zealand trials in March and April, the only opportunity for New Zealand swimmers to qualify for Beijing, but the qualifying time Burmester has to swim is one he should reach comfortably – 1min 57.67sec.

Immediately after the nationals a New Zealand team will leave for the world short-course championships in Manchester where Burmester will try to better that silver medal he won last year in China.

Burmester was a late convert to competitive swimming. He had his first taste of the water as a baby when his mother took him to water confidence lessons.

"Apparently I was picking up rings off the bottom of the pool after a few lessons and the coach said: `You've got no problems there. Take him home."'

He dabbled about at his neighbourhood swimming club as a primary schoolboy but also tried various other sports.

"I tried everything – cricket, rugby, field hockey, underwater hockey."

When Burmester was 10 Anthony Mosse, double Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the 200m butterfly, visited Tauranga for a training camp.

"He stayed with us and after that I took swimming a bit more seriously. At 14 I took six months away from swimming but six months later when I was 15 something clicked. I don't know what it was but I decided swimming was going to be it. It was going to be my sport."

Now 26, Burmester knows that time on his international career is running out. He is not saying Beijing will be his farewell, only that it is his immediate focus.

Medal or not there should be no post-Olympic blues this time. Burmester can sit back and reflect on a career that has made him one of New Zealand's best.

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From : Burmester a real Beijing hope - Sport - The Press

Zoe · #2 (**permalink**) IP: 202.20.5.81 31-10-07, 06:34 AM

Moss was in the 2001 NZ U21 Mens UWH team, and comes from an UWH family. His two brothers Dane and Cole are both currently trialing for the NZ Mens UWH Team.