After her heroics at the Olympics Penny Heyns took a well-deserved break. Now she has gone back to America to `stroke’ her way back to fitness
SWIMMING:Julian Drew
AT last year’s South African swimming championships Penny Heyns gave notice to the world of what they could expect four months later in Atlanta. Her stunning world record in front of a delirious home town crowd in Durban set her up for her Olympic performances which earned her the swimmer of the year award for 1996 from the prestigious American magazine, Swimming World.
At last week’s national championships in Germiston there were no such fireworks from the double Olympic champion, but there is no need for concern that Heyns has lost her edge. “I think it’s important for people to realise that it’s been a busy time for me since the Olympics and I didn’t want to miss out on that. I think it was part of the rewards and I think I deserved to enjoy it,” says Heyns who didn’t start training again after the Olympics until the middle of January.
“It was great!” she exclaims with obvious delight. “Considering that there’s a good chance I’ll swim at the next Olympics it means I probably won’t have another break like that until after I retire. Before the Olympics I’d been swimming for four years with very few breaks so it really was necessary. It may cost me a race or two now at the beginning of the season but I think in the long run it’s going to pay off.”
Although her lack of fitness didn’t cause any defeats last week, it did force her to pull out of Friday’s 200m breaststroke, much to the disappointment of the fans. “It’s unfortunate that people waited until the 200m to watch me swim, but on the other hand I can’t swim to please the crowds. I’ve got to do what’s right for me and my long-term goals,” says Heyns.
Heyns won the 100m breaststroke title on Thursday and set the fastest time in the world since the Olympics during the heats with her 1:09.11, but she was not happy with her stroke and pulled out of the 200m event. “Anybody who has seen my stroke would know that it was not what it usually is. It’s already been a bit of a hang-up for me this season and I didn’t see any point in swimming the 200m with a bad stroke and then going back to the States with a mental hang-up about it.”
This week she has spent time with her old coach, Tubby Lynn, in Durban, trying to improve her stroke and when she returns to America this weekend she will go to Canada to train for a week with her Olympic coach, Jan Bidrman. He left the University of Nebraska at the beginning of February and Heyns only had one-and-a-half weeks of her current training programme under him.
“Although the coach I’m working with now is very good he doesn’t know me that well, so as far as my stroke goes he’s not in a position to tell me much. When I see Jan we’ll be able to spend some time on my stroke and if I can establish a good stroke then it’s no problem going back to Lincoln (University of Nebraska) on my own. I will be looking to see what things are like in Calgary while I’m there and then I’ll go back to Lincoln and make my decision,” says Heyns on the possibility of moving up to Canada to train with Bidrman again.
ENDS