Swimming board appointed

A team of five people with swimming and sports administration backgrounds have been appointed to the new Dunedin Swim Coaching Board, formed to oversee coaching of the sport in the city.

Dunedin City Council general manager operations Tony Avery said the board was created in response to the recommendations of an independent panel that reviewed the city's swim coaching needs earlier this year.

The board members are chairman Lindsay Dey, sports administrator and president of the Dunedin Triathlon and Multisport Club; Matt Heaton, president of Waves Swimming Club; Sean McMahon, chairman of the Otago Swim Coaching Academy (Osca); Kay Alexander, Swimming Otago selector and Otago Swimming Technical Panel member, who also has involvement with Waves and Osca; and John Brimble, chief executive of Sport Otago.

Mr Avery said the board represented a broad range of people who had backgrounds in sport and swimming, and business and administration acumen.

The board would manage squad-based swim coaching services at Moana Pool.

There was genuine excitement in the swimming community about what a board like this could do, he said.

''It is an opportunity to develop Dunedin as a major centre for swimming that will be able to attract elite sports people here to train. The board will also be able to provide clear pathways for developing young swimmers, from learn-to-swim, to elite squad level.''

One of the board's first tasks would be to manage a process to appoint new coaches next year.

Mr Brimble's involvement would initially be for one year, providing a link to the work of the independent panel, of which he was part. Sport Otago would also provide the board with administration and set-up support in the initial stages.

The board was appointed by a panel made up of Councillor Bill Acklin, chairman of the council's community development committee; Mandy Grainger, president of Swim Otago; Mr Brimble; and Mr Avery.