Before discussing the swimming it is relevant to send a message to Swimming New Zealand (SNZ). Schedules of the World Championship programme sent out by email to all SNZ members need to be checked; need to be correct.

Yesterday, two of New Zealand’s younger swimmers swam their first events at the World Championships. Today three of the more experienced swimmers are centre stage. Galyer may not be all that experienced at swimming for New Zealand but has been raised in the cut throat world of American swimming. That counts as experience enough.

Yesterday we saw that the performances by New Zealand swimmers were between 2% and 2.5% behind qualifying for finals. Gary Francis is sensibly telling New Zealand that good results are going to take time. He is too polite to add that the damage done by SNZ’s centralised training policy is not an overnight fix. In insurance terms SNZ has driven the sport over a cliff. The sport is a right-off. Gary Francis knows that but has decided to try and repair the damage anyway.

I have long said SNZ’s problem is that Gary Francis knows what needs to be done but is too nice to demand obedience. Add that to the blind ignorance, in my opinion, of his bosses and the whole thing is an uphill battle. The skilled mechanic is being bossed about by a couple of oily rags.

No discussion of the Championships would be complete without mentioning three surprising events on the first night of finals. First, the victory of Ariane Titmus in the 400m freestyle. For years Katie Ledecky has been unbeatable but on this occasion the American had to accept a silver medal behind the Australian’s Oceania Record of 3:58.76. And second, Adam Peaty’s semi-final world record of 56.88 in the 100m breaststroke. Amazing. He went through the first 50m in 26.63. The New Zealand record for 50m breaststroke on its own is 27.06. And third, Steve Johns said New Zealand was going to show the world how good we are. I guess that’s right. In the men’s 50m fly a New Zealand record would have still been 0.2s too slow to make the championship final.

So did New Zealand swimming make progress on day two of the championships – Monday 22 July 2019?

Three swimmers were in the pool – Ashby, Galyer and Stanley. No one made a final or semi-final in their event. Galyer swam a  PB in the 100 backstroke and improved her ranking from 40 to 30; a good swim. Stanley and Ashby were slower than their personal best times. After two days the teams PB ratio is one from six or 17%.

Galyer was 0.87s (1.4%) behind qualifying for the semi-final.

Ashby was 0.95s (1.7%) behind qualifying for the semi-final.

Stanley was 2.30s (2.1%) behind qualifying for the semi-final.

The six swims by New Zealand swimmers on the first two days have averaged 2.0% behind the time required to progress to the next round.

Gareth Kean’s New Zealand record in the 100m back would have ranked him 5^th in the heats. Emily Thomas’ New Zealand record in the women’s 100 back would have qualified 12^th in the heats. Mathew Stanley’s New Zealand record of 1:47.09 would have still not made the semi-final.