First gold on cards as Smith enters fray again

There was a time when an Irish record or a personal best at a European Championships would spring a few hairs on the back of the neck. Not any more. We are here in Seville, shaved up, tapered and ready to be draped in gold.

Soaring expectations? Blame Michelle Smith de Bruin. At the outdoor swimming arena in the Spanish city, we are once again closer to re-visiting the winning rostrum than to Ireland's traditional ground of a B final or a repechage.

Late noon in the San Pablo arena and Smith de Bruin is practising in lane four of the championship pool. Dive. Kick under water, emerge, take one stroke and stop. Over and over, her husband and coach, Erik de Bruin, clicking his stopwatch. Eyeing her technique and sipping his liquids. The Irish complexion and patterned green swim suit bring Smith de Bruin into relief from most of the other tanned Europeans splashing and talking around her. Last minute adjustments. The shaving off of fractions of seconds. Like a Leaving Cert student approaching May, she is cramming in these times of high expectations.

Smith de Bruin upped the ante further when she broke the 1982 European shortcourse record in Cork just two weeks ago and indicated that as a swimmer who is notoriously rigorous about her levels of competitive fitness, her training was going pretty well. When she talks we listen. When she says she is feeling good, we believe that she is under-stating. She is Sonia O'Sullivan pre-Atlanta. Forceful and focused. Castiron. Publicly, she is distant and removed, a loner. The triple Olympic gold medallist and bronze medal winner, the double European gold and silver medal winner is being looked at now by more than just Irish people. While she is not the only talented swimmer in the Irish squad of seven, that is how it is. Smith is Irish swimming. New expectations, new pressures, new levels of what constitutes success now come into play all over again.

Smith de Bruin continues to shadow-box with her opponents by keeping her events for the week to herself and her coach. She tells us that she has trained long-term specifically for this competition. She has not taken time to re-adjust or swim in a 50-metre pool because of the interruption to her training by being forced to leave Ireland. By breaking the European record she indicated that she certainly has the engine that brought her so much success 12 months ago.

Inevitably, she is looking towards the World Championships in Perth, Australia, at the beginning of next year. Such is her level of performance that these championships may well provide a convenient stepping stone to greater success in six months' time. That said, Smith de Bruin comes into this competition with only one top-20 European ranking in the LEN's 1997 list. LEN, the governing body of European swimming, rank her in 18th place in the 200 metres butterfly with a time of 2:16.07. She does not rank in any of the other distances or strokes.

Acknowledging that list, she goes into today's 400 metres individual medley event with the fastest entry time of 4:39.40 (Olympic swim), over seven seconds faster than her nearest rival, Ukrainian Yana Clochlova, has been able to swim this year (4:47.08). If Smith de Bruin can come close to her Atlanta swim, she is almost guaranteed the gold medal.

Similarly, in Thursday's 400 metres freestyle, Her time of 4:07.70 compares very favourably with Germany's Kirstin Kielglass, whose entry mark for this year is 4:11.79. The 1997 times for the rest of the listed field in this event, including Germany's Dagmar Hase, are slower again.

The 200 metres individual medley (2:13.90) and the 200 metres butterfly (2:09.90) times of de Bruin are also significantly quicker than those of her opponents during this year. Possibly because she is Olympic champion, she has had times entered on the list that were set prior to 1997. Because of her low profile build-up to Seville, she has not competed as widely as her opponents. Consequently, it is likely that her various time for this year would not accurately reflect her potential in each event.

She does know that the winning times are within her compass. Whether on this occasion she has cut it too fine in terms of long-course competition could possibly be her biggest worry. While Klochkova is over seven seconds adrift, Germany's Sabine Herbst and the Czech Republic's Hana Cerna should also be grouped in the bunch most likely to cause Smith de Bruin concern in today's opening 400 metres individual medley event. Each of her opponents have a time in the 4:47 range. Also away today is the talented Trojan teenager Chantal Gibney, who swims in the women's 100 metres freestyle. Adrian and Hugh O'Connor are also both included in the provisional list for a run in the men's 200 metres freestyle. Gibney, still just 16-yearsold, achieved the B qualifying time for Atlanta last year and, along with Lee Kelleher, who is not here on this occasion, is seen to be one of Ireland's outstanding swimming prospects in the freestyle sprints.

Her personal best for the 100 metres is 58.99, which puts her in 35th place on the official list. Realistically, Gibney is aiming to trim that mark to bring her closer to the qualifying standard for Perth and Sydney 2000.

RTE's coverage of the European Championships begins on Network 2 at 3.45 this afternoon.

Year's Best

Leading 1997 Times For 400 Metres Individual Medley 1, M Smith de Bruin (Ireland) - 4:39.40 2, Y Klochkova (Ukraine) - 4:47.08 3, S Herbst (Germany) - 4:47.31 4, H Cerna (Czech Rep) - 4:47.73 5, C Rund (Germany) - 4:48.87 6, N Kozlova (Russia) - 4:50.00 7, M Bosevska (Macedonia) - 4:50.02 8, N Cliton (France) - 4:50.21