Pleased with his longcourse performances in Geneva last weekend, Irish Olympian Nick O'Hare reverts to shortcourse competition in Ulster, outside Zurich in Switzerland, tomorrow and Sunday.
O'Hare is using the Hamburg club in Germany as his base with a view to competing in his second successive Olympics.
The dedicated Dubliner has just received confirmation from Minister for Sport Jim McDaid that his funding, when restored, will be backdated. Support from the Olympic Council of Ireland has just about saved O'Hare from falling into serious debt. As things stand he is existing in spartan conditions. The bill for his flights this weekend will be picked up by the state-aided Hamburg club.
"It's a bit ironic, getting funded in Hamburg and not in Dublin," he says. "There were times during last year when I was on the brink of quitting altogether. Only for the encouragement I got from Pat Hickey (the president of the Olympic Council) I doubt if I would still be swimming. I told him what I needed to do and he encouraged me to go away and gave me a few donations towards it".
Reflecting on the year at home O'Hare says: "There has been no real competition in Ireland since the nationals (the National Championships) in July and that is a disgrace. There hasn't been a decent competition for juniors and under-age since the summer. It was a disgrace that this was allowed to happen."
The Irish freestyle swimmer will be accompanied to Uster by Hamburg team-mate Ivana Walterova, a promising Slovakian competitor who will be in Salthill for next month's Leisureland International event. Also lined up for Leisureland is American sprinter John Olsen.
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