Upward trend should be maintained - Colbourn

The ASA Compunet National Swimming Championships, staged over three days last weekend, brought to an end what is considered by many as a fruitful season where rising standards, mostly from the base, vindicated the good work which is being done at all levels.

Despite the water temperature not being the ideal one for swimmers, the championships produced ten records, four national, the 4x50 metres freestyle and medley relays for boys and girls, and six age-group marks. It was satisfying to see that some records which had withstood the strands of time, were finally erased from the books.

The most significant one was the Group A 50 metres freestyle mark held by John John Tabone since 1991 when he swam the distance at the Marsascala Pool in 32.24 seconds. The breakthrough came last Sunday when Matthew Zammit (IASIS) clipped 17 hundredths of a second off that time.

Daniel Galea (Sliema) and Rhea Cutajar (Neptunes), both Group B swimmers, also made inroads on old records, the former improving Chris D'Ugo's 100 metres breaststroke mark set in 1995 by 0.99 seconds when registering 1:21.76, and the latter, trained by Julian Degabriele, chopping a good 1.65 seconds off Christine Cachia's 1996 record of 1:20.32. Galea also beat the 50 metres mark when recording 35.80.

The fast-improving Mark Sammut, another IASIS swimmer under the charge of Silvio Privitera, broke the two Group B records, the 50 and the 200 metres backstroke.

The sizeable crowd at the pool on Sunday afternoon witnessed some spectacular races especially the head-to-head duel between Andrea Agius and Paul Herrera in the 100 metres breast and that between Neil Agius and Kyle Scerri in the 200 IM, both these races producing PB's for the Agius boys.

According to Andy Colbourn, now at the helm of the Aquatic Sports Association (ASA) team, these records, along with those broken at the FISEC Games recently and the numerous PB's, "show that Maltese swimming is at the moment going through a real turning point.

"This is seeing many new standards set. What is not shown by these records is how many are being missed by only hundredths of a second. When this is taken into consideration, one can see the improvement that is being made in the sport," Colbourn said.

He stressed that this would not have been possible without the excellent work from the club coaches.

"I am very happy with the work of Gail Rizzo, Anita Mercieca Bons, Maria Grixti, Monique Mangion and Silvio Privitera, including all their assistants, who are guiding the swimmers in their respective clubs and contributing so much towards the future of swimming in Malta."

Turning to next season's plans for the national team squad and the other swimmers, Colbourn spoke about the main targets.

"The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) in Monaco next June are foremost in our minds.

"We have the International Meet in Lyon, France, in February, and then the national championships this time next year. We also aim to send token representatives for the Worlds in Melbourne in March," he said.

When asked about the training for next season, which is starting later this month, he said: "This will be more specific than in the past, with the sprint, middle and long distance swimmers doing training that is much more suited to their particular discipline rather than the one-distance generic training."

Development squad

He said that he would be working closely with the other coaches and that not all swimmers in the national squad will be with him all the time.

"Some will stay with their coaches but I will keep an eye on their training and offer assistance they may ask for. We will start a national development squad from the top swimmers that will have them train together once or twice a month. In this way all coaches will be present for these sessions, thus ensuring a high coach-to-swimmers ratio which would enable us to give the feedback and attention required to each swimmer.

"Seminars are also envisaged both for coaches and swimmers to help them tackle some of the lesser understood areas of swimming such as nutrition, periodisation and psychology," Colbourn said.

"This will all be against the background of the Time Trials which will be compulsory for national team swimmers. They will be called on to perform at a hundred per cent of their ability in each trial. Even so, since these are not main competitions I will not be expecting earth-shattering times.

"Nevertheless, I expect effort from them. I want a squad of swimmers that are prepared to give everything at any time and not just when they think the time is right," the coach concluded.

Colbourn is making use of the latest scientific methods in swimming testing and training with the help of the Malta Olympic Committee Functional Diagnostic Laboratory.

As for more swim specific science he is being assisted by Maria Mifsud Bonnici, a qualified sport and exercise physiologist, and Clifford Sultana, a qualified sports masseur.

My impression of the new ASA swimming coach is one of a professional who is completely dedicated to the cause of maintaining an upward trend in the sport.