simon burnett
Simon Burnett. Photo © SWPix
Missing the 2005 World Championships may turn out to be one of the best things that happened to Simon Burnett that year if his subsequent performances are anything to go by. The Arizona based swimmer was forced to miss the April selection trials though illness and elected to stay in the US an train through the meet.
That decision was shown to be a masterstroke at the Commonwealth Games trials in Manchester last August as Simon set no fewer than 5 British records on his way to a clean sweep of sprint freestyle titles. And what records they were. In the two longer events Burnett catapulted himself well into the world class bracket with eventual times of 1:46.59 over 200m and 48.68 in the 100m event, while in the 50m he erased Mark Foster form the record books with a swim of 22.12.
It was a very different situation 4 years Ago when Simon made his international bow at the Manchester Commonwealth Games. That year he had made the team as a backstroker and narrowly failed to make the final of the 100m event as he finished just outside the finals posts in his semi final. There was a hint of what was to come though, when he anchored the 4x200m freestyle of Adam Faulkner, Steve Parry and Jamie Salter to a bronze medal.
Two years later, and having been part of the fine British effort at the 2003 worlds in Barcelona, Burnett made the 'race of the century' in Athens when following a then British record in the semi final of the 200m freestyle he took his pace alongside Thorpe Hackett, Phelps and van Den Hoogenband and recorded a creditable 7th placed finish.
From that springboard Burnett has emerged as one of Britain's brightest medal hopes largely as a result of his time in Arizona, which has been a big influence on him.
"The facilities in Arizona are awesome. The weight room is unbelievable and the time and space I have available in the pool can't be matched. The University runs the pool so we say when we train and don't have to share the pool with anyone else." he recently told Total Swimming.
"The level of competition and competition structure we have here in the States is exciting. There’s a real focus on competing as a team rather than just an individual and I also have the opportunity to live and train with Olympic champions all year round so that keeps me focused and motivated."
Two of those Olympic Champions, South Africa's Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman, will become two of Burnett's fiercest rivals in Melbourne when they line up in the 100m freestyle. Ian Thorpe and Canadian Brent Hayden also present big challenges and the Australian will also be a firm favourite for the 200m event.
Burnett though has shown he has the pedigree to compete at their level and must now translate that into race day performances. If he can do that then medal placings are a definite possibility and we should see even more British records.