Olympic Campaign Update 1 - Belgium Camp

After relatively uneventful flights to Belgium, the team has now settled into a routine at our base at Puyenbroeck and it seems that we are all over our jet lag and have adjusted to the time difference between Europe and home.

The swimming facilities are good and training has been going well. At most times we have the entire pool to ourselves during training and that allows swimmers and coaches to just get on with the job without too many distractions. The team has a clean bill of health other than the occasional niggle but nothing of major concern right now.

Clint Knox, massage therapist, from HPSNZ had spent the first five days with the team to ensure that all tired muscles from the long travel were well looked after. For the duration of our stay in Belgium we have ensured that there are local physiotherapists that will be visiting our base to ensure that the athletes are looked after.

Our hosts have been most accommodating and have tried to make us feel most welcome here.

The training camp base is set in a remote location. Therefore in order to ensure that the swimmers have opportunities to unwind and relax away from the training environment, we have tried to organize some outings for the team.

On Saturday, the team spent the afternoon in Ghent which is currently hosting its annual Festival, The Gentse Feesten Sint-Baafs.

On Sunday evening, we had an open evening where local swimmers came to watch the training session. All AquaBlacks postcards were snapped up in a matter of minutes. After the training session, the coaches did some work with the local swimmers and all of our swimmers helped out with some hints and tips and a few AquaBlacks even joined in and had some informal races with the local kids. This gesture was really well received. A big thank you to the team for helping out with this clinic despite just having jumped out of a hard training session.

Today (Tuesday) was a rest day for most of the swimmers. An excursion was organized to Tyne Cott Cemetery. It contains more New Zealand First World War graves than any other cemetery. Gary Hurring said that it was a very moving experience when seeing Memorial and all the graves of the fallen New Zealanders.

On a different sporting note, we had Tom V and Mark Regan playing each other in our own version of Wimbledon. The end result was tie of 2-2 in Games. Was good to see Mark have a run around but he has been refused physio treatment and been told to improve his warm up. After that we had the Men’s doubles that saw Mark “Pat Cash” Regan teaming up with Jeremy “Jimmy Connors” Duncan against Gary “Quick Serve” Hurring and Tom “Electric Man” V. This match also ended in a 4-4 tie after rain stopped play much to the joy of Cash/Connors after leading 4-1.

Thursday night will see us going through a team activity in the form of a Quiz Night hosted by the Grand Quiz Master, Gary Hurring. The results of the quiz night will be brought to you in our next update.

It’s back to the pool tomorrow to get on with the job that we are here to do. The swimmers are moving into their final phases of their preparation for the Games and as they do, with more rest and the excitement of a major competition coming up, we will be there to support them where we can and make sure, where it is within our control, that they have all the tools required to deliver their best performances in London.

London is calling…

Rushdee

PHOTO: Local swimmers in Belgium train with the team.