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Australia’s presence on the Mare Nostrum Tour marks the end of a long period in which racing has been the kepy focus. As the emphasis shifts towards a sustained block of training for most of the Dolphins, Australia Head Coach Alan Thompson talks to SwimNews about what’s gone and what happens next.

“We’ve come here (Mare Nostrum) as a bit of a mixture of training and competition. The guy’s aren’t fully rested. We’ve been training doubles since we were here but they’ve been preparing to swim well - and better as the tour goes on. We came here off a national camp two weeks ago in Queensland. We reduced a little bit coming into racing, as you would normally do in a competition/training phase.

“For most of these guys, this will be the end of their compettiion phase. Alot of the guys from Commonwealths went to Shanghai and then have come here and that’s been a competitive first six months of the years. Some will go to Pan Pacs as well but most will have a small rest now and then get back into a big training block before our trials (December). They may have a small rest and enter another competitive phase for the short-course (Australian nationals in Hobart) in August, just rest up a couple of days to be a little sharper. Some will do that. It’s not compulsory. It’s a choice. The Pan Pacs team also have a choice whether they come back to short-course or not. But the main focus from now on is the trials in December.”

HACKETT THE HISTORY MAN

That is still true for Grant Hackett, though the Olympic champion and world record holder over 1,500 metres is in line to make history beyond the pool: already one of four who could become the first man to win the same crown at three Games - along with Thorpe, Van den Hoogenband and Hall Jnr - Hackett is serious about taking on the inaugural 10km open water swim in Beijing.

“It’s been made difficult by the selection criteria placed on the Olympic Games,” said Thompson. “If we’d have earned positions (as a nation) for the Games it would have been easier to conconduct trials at home and the best man gets in but now there’s a bit more added to it.”

The criteria runs as follows: two entries maximum per nation, 25 competitors overall in Beijing. Ten men will be selected in the first stage Open Water trials at the world championships in Seville in early summer 2008, ten more can qualify at a series of continental and regional meets and then a final hit-out will take place on the course in Beijing to select the last four for the race proper, with with China guaranteed one entry as Olympic host and make up the 25 places.

Discussions have already taken place between Denis Cotterell and Australia’s head coaches in the pool and the bigger pond beyond. The race pattern fits: the 10km will be staged three days after Hackett’s defence of the 1,500-metre crown.

“It’s just a matter now we have a schedule of him deciding if that’s what he wants to do,” said Thompson.

AUSTRALIA’S OTHER MEN

The overall performance of Australia’s men, in the absence of Hackett and Thorpe, at the Commonwealth Games in March, when the host nation’s male Dolphins won just one gold medal, in the medley relay in the last session of finals. Thompson believes much of the criticism of his men was unfair but acknowledges that his team has reached a watershed.

“I think what we’re seeing is a changing of the guard,” said Thompson. “Probably since at least 1997, and to some extent 1996, we had a strong and building men’s team that was growing in stature. The men who held those positions held them for quite a long time. We’ve spoken alot about how Thorpe and Hackett and Huegill and Welsh and Klim held positions for at least eight years at every meet. What we’ve seen then is that the next group under probably didn’t get the opportunities.

“We’ve seen that in a lot of sports. In cricket at the moment, they’re looking at what they can do to ensure continuity of high standards. We’re doing the same thing. We’re not a country that has so much money that we can keep spending it on programmes so we have to target weaknesses, and we’ve been very good at targetting weakness on the whole.”

He then hinted at the weakness that was a little overlooked and produced the result that caused the small storm in Melbourne back in March. “What we’ve tended to do is build the area we’re weak in and then shift the focus awy from that to another area. back in 2001 our women’s team were showing good signs. We focussed heavily on the women and in doing that I think we probably neglected the underlying problem in the men’s programme.

“We’ve recognised it since and we’ve put in place mechanisms to build the next group. As you can see with this group here (on the Mare Nostrum Tour), we’ve got three levels of swimmers on this team. we’ve got a team leaving on Monday to the US to race in Mission Viejo and Santa Clara. we’ve looked at targetting 16-17 year-old women and 17-19 year-old men. That’s what we see as our target group now. What we have to make sure this time is that as we concentrate on building the men back up we don’t neglect the women along the way.”