Yesterday I described being asked to leave the West Wave Pool. My “crime”, I was told, was that I was coaching a swimmer in a public lane. The reality was that I had taken Eyad to the pool because he has no car. I am not his coach and am not paid for the help, with transport and the like, that I give him while he is in New Zealand. In the time he was swimming on Saturday, and before I was approached by the lifeguards, I had not spoken to Eyad at all. I had done nothing that could be identified as poolside coaching. On my wristwatch I did time two of his 100 metre swims and emailed the times to his coach in Saudi Arabia. No one was aware or knew I had timed the two swims – two swims out of the 100×100 Eyad was swimming that day. I hardly think anything I did counted as coaching and certainly did not merit being asked to leave the pool.

But since that story was written two interesting developments have occurred. First this morning I planned to take Eyad to the West Wave Pool for a training swim. As I was about to leave a friend called me to say he was going to the pool with his children and could take Eyad to the pool for me. I agreed. Three hours later I picked Eyad up from the pool to take him home. Eyad told me that during his training my friend had talked to him on several occasions, had photographed his stroke, had timed a couple of his 200 swims and had generally acted far more as a “coach” than I ever would.

It will surprise no one to read that the West Wave lifeguards never said a thing. My friend’s obvious coaching was no problem. Clearly the West Wave Pool management has no “coaching” problem. This is a personal vendetta – pure and simple. David Wright looking at his wristwatch twice is cause enough to ask him to leave the pool. Anyone else can hold discussions with, photograph and time swimmers without censure or mention. David Wright would be banned for life if he so much as tried any of that.

And that’s not right. There is no way that sort of personal victimization should be tolerated in the management of a public facility. There is no way that sort of behaviour should be tolerated anywhere.

And so I decided to do something about it. You see in New Zealand we are fortunate to have an organization whose role it is to protect individuals from bullying and harassment. The organization is called the Human Rights Commission. Today I submitted a complaint to the Commission. I described the events that occurred a month ago when Eyad and I were asked to leave the pool because we were told the manager felt “uncomfortable” with us being there. I also told the Commission about being asked to leave yesterday because I had been seen looking at my wristwatch and that was clear evidence of coaching. I also made it clear than many others “coach” swimmers including Eyad without so much as a second look from the lifeguards or the West Wave Pool manager, Alex Calwell. The evidence of “bullying and harassment” is overwhelming. I will let you know what happens.