Singapore swimmers in deep shit
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July 2, 2008
Swimmers' uphill task
Singapore team are in Sydney to bid for Beijing qualification with 'novice' coach
By Jeanette Wang
IT IS perhaps the biggest meet of their careers.
This week's swim competition in Sydney will be the last chance for Marcus Cheah and Nicholas Tan to qualify for August's Beijing Games.
But the swim for these Olympic hopefuls will be an upstream one, as they will have to produce their best times without their regular coach.
For Jack Simon, 70, who coached them, served his last day as head coach of The Grassroots Aquatic Club on Monday.
In a seemingly desperate move, the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) appointed 21-year-old national swimmer Leonard Tan to replace Simon late last week.
Simon has 46 years' coaching experience, including 25 with the United States national team.
Tan, who has less than three months' coaching experience as Simon's assistant, will oversee the team at the Telstra Grand Prix 2 event from July 4-6.
Said Nicholas, 18, who is just 0.08 second off the men's 100m butterfly Olympic B qualifying mark (54.71s): 'I'm not as comfortable as I would be if I had an experienced coach going with me.'
Nicholas and Tan were teammates at last year's South-east Asia Games.
Nicholas' mother Eunice said: 'The kids have trained so hard. Nicholas is so close to qualifying. It will be a shame if he doesn't make it because his regular coach is not with him.'
Yesterday morning, led by Tan, the Simon-coached trio of Cheah, Nicholas and Quah Ting Wen, 15, and Russell Ong, 18, left for Sydney.
'Imagine the intensity the boys are going to feel,' said Ting Wen's mother Anne, whose daughter is the only one among the four who has qualified for the Olympics.
Jeffrey Leow, the SSA's president, believes that Tan is the best person to be with the swimmers on the trip.
'He has had the most direct access and familiarity with Marcus, Nicholas and Ting Wen,' said Leow.
'Other than Jack, Leonard knows their past two months of workouts best.'
Temporary help, though, will be available in Sydney in the form of renowned Australian coaches Michael Bohl and Ken Wood.
The SSA, with help from the Singapore Sports Council, has arranged for Bohl, who coaches 200m individual medley world record-holder Stephanie Rice, to help Tan out at the meet.
John Dempsey, the former head coach of the now-defunct SSA Centre of Excellence (COE), has persuaded his friend Wood to assist the swimmers at the meet, after Cheah, Ting Wen and Nicholas, in desperation, called Dempsey for help.
'Leonard is a lovely man and one of my former swimmers, but he's a novice coach,' said Dempsey over the phone from Hong Kong, where he is now a club coach.
'I have a long history with the trio and feel obligated to help them out. Ken Wood has graciously agreed to assist them as much as he can.'
Wood will be in Sydney with his Brisbane club swimmers, including 200m butterfly world record-holder Jessicah Schipper and Australian 10km and 1,500m champion Melissa Gorman.
Dempsey has briefed Wood on the trio's performances and training and racing routines.
Simon's departure marks the second time in three months that the trio have been left in the lurch.
Dempsey left in March, just before the four-year-old COE at Toa Payoh closed.
Some observers felt the Australian had been asked to leave as he was not part of the SSA's plans.
Dempsey felt it was unfortunate that the trio's preparations have been less than perfect.
'But I'm confident they'll do the best they can,' he said.
jwang@sph.com.sgI see an incompetent administrator failing badly in his implementation in revamping the organisation structure. Losing 2 expensive and experienced coaches in a short span of time while the swimmers are preparing for their Olympics year is the best example showing how a weak administrator should be. Decentralization training for a small pool of talented swimmers in a small country, would seem illogical to a layman. To set several decentralised training swim centres, an extravagant financial consultant would need to raise the operating expenses to engage a team of experienced coaches. But, he could only afford 1 expensive coach so far. Sometimes, a practical and experienced administrator is what the association needs, not people with impractical dreams.
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that's the problem with Singapore sports what... always the management problem....they are there for the power only.... not really for the sport......
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if the particpants dun have what it takes, they simply dun have it....not the weather, the poor grounds or everybody around
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Aiya, talk so much for what, let them go lah, if not later, the govt go china and buy china swimmers, just like our ping pong, ping and pong also now all chinese, then hor, we pay taxes to give them. Mai la, mai la, just keep quiet can liao.
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Originally posted by Cowbaycowboo:
if the particpants dun have what it takes, they simply dun have it....not the weather, the poor grounds or everybody around
ya lor...wan say they in deep shit becoz of 'novice' coach...if they're alr "national" swimmers then they should be good...if their performance lags becoz of their coach then i dunno wot kinda sportsmen they are...they may say its a team effort but i say its actually everyman for himself...
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Originally posted by Cowbaycowboo:
if the particpants dun have what it takes, they simply dun have it....not the weather, the poor grounds or everybody around
yalor, cannot swim means cannot lor, dun blame swiming trunk too big hor -
Originally posted by angel7030:
yalor, cannot swim means cannot lor, dun blame swiming trunk too big horlol....i cannot imagine if the swimmers' trunks we're to come off upon diving...
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Hunk - "wait long long hor"
Humpty - "me! me! i am coming!"
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Originally posted by Cowbaycowboo:
Hunk - "wait long long hor"
This looks so gay sia...
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Originally posted by Cowbaycowboo:
Hunk - "wait long long hor"
Humpty - "me! me! i am coming!"
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Originally posted by Cowbaycowboo:
Hunk - "wait long long hor"
Humpty - "me! me! i am coming!"
aiyo, see the first picture only want to go toilet, then look at the second picture, no mood liao.
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Originally posted by Cowbaycowboo:
Hunk - "wait long long hor"
Humpty - "me! me! i am coming!"
Wee! why never wear bra huh??? -
eee..swimming in deep shit..
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how does implementing the new structure at this point of time help and prepare our swimmers emotionally and mentally for the biggest event of the world in 1 month? so clever right? our foreign competitors must be lauging at our administration's clever stupidity.
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welcome to stinkapore
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u mean the swimmers swim in deep shit???
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our poor swimmers have become someone's experimental guinea pigs.