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TV One News Interview

By David

I was interviewed today by the Sports Editor, 6pm News at TVNZ, Andrew Hay. Television interviews are always slightly nervous occasions. I do not like the powerlessness of not knowing what comments will be edited. What am I going to end up saying and what is being left out? On this occasion I was happy with the item that went to air. Andrew Hay had selected the points I thought were important and had included them in an interesting way – TVNZ, thank you.

The topic was Lauren Boyle’s 1500 meters swim in the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre. Is her swim a world record or isn’t it? Hay interviewed ex-national coach and current swim school teacher, Mark Bone and the Australian that Sport New Zealand appointed to manage the new Swimming New Zealand, Christian Renford. Here is my biased view of what each of us had to say.

Me – I made two points. First, that this debate was not about the quality of Lauren Boyle’s swim. It was about whether the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre complies with FINA’s facility rules. Especially the question of fairness. The Wellington Pool has a significant current. And the question of danger. FINA rules establish a minimum water depth for a competition pool. The Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre does not comply with either the fairness or the danger rules.

And second I made the point that signing a World Record Application will require two Swimming New Zealand officials to lie. Questions 13 requires SNZ to confirm that the “water was still” and question 17 requires confirmation that all FINA rules have been met. No Swimming New Zealand official in Wellington or Auckland can confirm either of these things. The pool is too shallow; 1.2 meters compared to the rule requiring a minimum depth of 1.35 meters and there is a current that required an extra stroke and half a second from Boyle every second length. Anyone who signs a form confirming that questions 13 and 17 are true and accurate in respect of the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre will be lying to the parent body, FINA. If they do lie, I can only hope FINA impose a harsh penalty and decline the World Record Application.

Renford – He seems to me to have a most unfortunate TV manner; uncaring, arrogant and self-important. But that’s just my biased view. Certainly his short appearance was all about the man and not the ball. He did not use my name but said Swimming New Zealand was used to aggravation coming from my direction. Clearly he was trying to create the impression that nothing from this source (me) had any merit and should be dismissed out of hand. Absolutely no mention by Renford of the illegal depth of the pool, the raging current or the stopwatch and stroke count evidence. One would have thought that a good CEO would find these of great concern. After all one of his members lost her front teeth diving into this very same pool. It seems Renford comes from a school that believes if you attack the messenger loud enough and long enough the message might just get lost; but not this time; no chance, no way. We will never give up. It is all too important for that.

Bone – Bone appears to me to come across as a bit stupid; saying stuff he thinks Swimming New Zealand wants to hear but with no evidence to support his platitudes. He has a lovely speaking voice. It’s the content that’s a problem. His rant on this occasion was the shame of this attack on Boyle’s credibility and integrity. What a load of rubbish. Nowhere on the Swimwatch site, or Swim Vortex or Swimming World has there ever been anything but the highest admiration for Boyle and her swimming. Remember this. “Absolute unreserved congratulations to Lauren Boyle: what a fantastic 1500 meter swim in a world best time. She continues to prove herself as a true class act – an athlete New Zealand can be very proud of.” That’s the first two lines from the August 11 Swimwatch post. If Bone ever reads this post, could he please send me or TVNZ the slightest evidence that this matter has anything to do with Lauren Boyle? What this is about is the inability of Bone, Renford and their mates to accept that the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre does not comply with FINA facility rules. Boyle is a victim of Swimming New Zealand’s incompetence. It is such a pity Bone was unable to use his media skills to address this real injustice. Not that I expected anything more. Courage and the free expression of a minority dissenting opinion are not the first qualities that have ever come to mind when I hear the name, Mark Bone.

So that’s my thoughts on the first television interview on this subject. At this stage it appears SNZ is hell bent on submitting the World Record Application. To do that two people are going to have to lie about the fitness of the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre. Wouldn’t it be nice to think that there was someone, somewhere in Swimming New Zealand that was brave, principled and valued swimming enough to stand up and say, “The pool does not meet FINA standards. I’m not signing the form.”

Rest assured we will hold their feet very close to the honesty fire. Rest assured we will warn FINA of the arrival of this item of SNZ fiction. This debate is important. It goes right to the heart of what sort of organization do we have and what sort of people are guiding its progress.

And finally, it would be nice to do something live on television with Bone and Renford one day. I don’t think the buggers have a leg to stand on. I think this TVNZ interview exposed them as guilty as sin and slightly scared.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2014 at 12:33 am and is filed under New Zealand . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Clive Rushton

    You? Yes, fully understand TVNZ interviewing you.
    Christian Renford? Yes, fully understand.
    Bones?

  • David

    I have taken the liberty of copying a comment from Craig Lord’s website Swim Vortex. There are lots of others worth a read but this is a good one.

    “Hi all, I am a resident of the fine city that hosted the aforementioned swim on the weekend. I too was there with our swim team to witness the event.

    Just wanting to confirm the 1500 was probably the most entertaining 1500 I have ever watched, it was a truly awesome swim and if there is anyway round these issues and the record does get ratified I will be very happy for Lauren.

    Only main reason I’m posting this is to confirm I have competed in the pool myself and it is definitely easier swimming towards the deep end than going back to the shallow end. When you cross from the 5 metre deep part to the 2 metre deep part you feel like you have hit a wall. Any advantage gained from going down the pool is more than removed when coming back.

    What I did want to clear up though is the reason it was held at the shallow end, purely financial!!!!! The pool centre bulkheads have to be swapped over to hold a compliant meet starting at the deep end.
    I believe this costs a small fortune and whom ever is responsible for paying doesn’t want to part with the bucks.
    I truly hope this cost saving does not cost Lauren her WR after such a great swim. Sad really.”

  • SwimMum

    Whilst it is sad when any child gets injured partaking in a sport (and all sports including swimming carry risks), I do have to question the supposed “danger” element you keep harping on about at WRAC. You refer to the 11 year old child who lost her teeth whilst diving into the pool at the 2013 Wgton Short Course Champs. Here are some facts:
    Prior to her club’s move to the Coastlands Aquatic Centre this child trained out of Raumati Pool which is at least as shallow if not shallower than WRAC. I assume she managed to dive there without injury. She has also competed at Cannons Creek pool where it is only 1 metre deep (yes that is right – just 1 metre) and to the best of my knowledge no injuries there either.
    Maybe her club should have been responsible for reminding the swimmers of diving depth at warmup particularly as they had just moved to the deeper training pool at Coastlands AC.

    • Wow

      “Maybe her club should have been responsible for reminding the swimmers of diving depth at warmup particularly as they had just moved to the deeper training pool at Coastlands AC.”

      How about “Swimming Wellington / NZ / the Wellington council should have been responsible for ensuring that swimmers from juniors to world beaters were given a safe, up-to-standard environment in which to compete?”

      Or maybe not. Maybe, “Lauren Boyle should have been responsible for checking that the meets she entered were to be swum in pools that met all of FINA’s standards just in case she broke a world record.”

      I see no one saying she should have popped up to Auckland instead.

      Because she shouldn’t have. It’s never the victim’s fault if they were given substandard facilities when they had a reasonable expectation of quality. Both the eleven year old and Lauren Boyle had a reasonable expectation of quality. That the expectation was not met is SNZ / Wellington’s fault.

      The least SNZ / Wellington officials could do is ensure that both eleven year olds’ teeth and world beaters’ performances are safe.

  • Justsaying

    SwimMum…Seriously? Yes it is sad when children injure themselves participating in sport, but as a parent I have an expectation that those responsible for children’s safety in sport are vigilant. As the frontal lobe in children does not reach it’s full potential (and it appears never in some) until late adolescence it’s imperative that the adults responsible do all that is possible to ensure safe practices. I am confident there are coaches across the country who go on and on about how to dive, the best way to do a pull,out, not to breath on the first stroke, often feeling that it goes in one ear and out the other. Those who take on the role to run meets have a responsibility under the ACC legislation to identify hazards. Meets at Cannons Creek always indicate the shallowness of the pool, not so at the WRAC. The adults need to take responsibility for safety and adults with your attitude do the sport no favours. Regulations and rules are there for a reason and may seem over the top, until someone breaks there neck. Just saying…..

  • David

    Is this women unhinged? So is she going to join a chorus who would say that a women who is raped is to blame because she wore provocative clothes? Or a child who is abused is to blame because they were there and did not run away?

  • bubbles

    SwimmerMum I struggle to see how you could of used a name such as the one which you chose
    When you apparantly lack any motherly instincts.i know from experience when I was a young swimmer myself that come competition the excitement and different environment of a competition can cause you to forget some things that you have learned in training and even what your coach has told you in warm up.besides even older swimmers can make mistakes from time to time. I was at a swim meet over the weekend and heared one of Nzs former olympic swimmer tell me he used to smack into the bottom of the wellington shallow end at competition while preparing for big international swim meets in his late teens and early twenties.So losing teeth and breaking your back can happen to anyone young or old.A youngster learning to dive or an olympic athletes of the likes of lauren boyle.please be carefull about blaming the victim I am not so sure if you would have written this post if it was your own son or daughter or atleast I hope not

    • SwimMum

      where did i blame the victim? I suggested her club should be reminding swimmers of changes in depth at different pools prior to warmup. There are always risks in any sports and swimming is no exception. I have seen swimmers break their fingers in backstroke and whack their heads really hard (hitting the wall hard), dislocating fingers/wrists in freestyle, breaking/dislocating toes in tumble turns. There are always going to be risks whether the pool is 1 metre deep or 2 metres deep. It is learning to manage those risks as swimmers, parents, managers and coaches that is important. The pool is what it is – you can’t suddenly make a 1.2 metre pool deeper.

      • Wow

        SwimMum,

        “The pool is what it is – you can’t suddenly make a 1.2 metre pool deeper.”

        They can start the meets from the deep end (which another poster pointed out is more expensive, not impossible) and turn off the filtration system that probably causes the current. They can also find one or two engineers (mechanical eng. students from Vic would probably suffice) to pop down and survey the pool to make sure it is the filtration system’s fault, or identify what else might cause a current and propose a solution. Anyone past the second year who’s taken thermo and a fluid dynamics class could be useful to take a second glance.

        FINA, national bodies and local councils can do nothing about people breaking their hands at the end of races. If FINA proposed solutions that could be met, pools would be expected to meet them. Your comparison is completely invalid.

        An eleven year old shouldn’t be expected to be experienced enough, physically or mentally, to adjust her starts for unacceptable pool depths that are clearly marked out as such by FINA. That sort of skill comes from age and experience. Her club could well have mentioned it to her and the same result could have taken place (we don’t know this didn’t happen). Please believe me: I have been a swimmer and have experienced how tricky it can be to modify a racing start based on the depth of a pool. I’ve also grazed my feet on the bottom of a the Wellington pool when starting a butterfly race, aged 18, knowing how deep the pool isn’t. It’s too shallow. Meets shouldn’t be held from its shallow end, or while the current-flow issue is still around. Period.

  • bubbles

    SwimmerMum I struggle to see how you could of used a name such as the one which you chose
    When you apparantly lack any motherly instincts.i know from experience when I was a young swimmer myself that come competition the excitement and different environment of a competition can cause you to forget some things that you have learned in training and even what your coach has told you in warm up.besides even older swimmers can make mistakes from time to time. I was at a swim meet over the weekend and heared one of Nzs former olympic swimmer tell me he used to smack into the bottom of the wellington shallow end at competition while preparing for big international swim meets in his late teens and early twenties.So losing teeth and breaking your back can happen to anyone young or old.A youngster learning to dive or an olympic athletes of the likes of lauren boyle.please be carefull about blaming the victim I am not so sure if you would have written this post if it was your own son or daughter or atleast I hope not

  • Swimfan

    Question?
    Ok SNZ submit an application of Lauren’s great swim.

    How does this get ratified by FINA? Do they appoint an individual to determine the pool satisfies FINA regulations and if so how is this person selected?

    Or do they just accept SNZ application as true and correct?

    I would be interested to know the process.

  • David

    Wow. Well put. Thank you