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When Hayden's If Became His When

Oct 7, 2010  - Craig Lord

When Brent Hayden rocketed to a sub-48sec Commonwealth victory in the blue ribband 100m free in Delhi today the men's meet had a candidate to match the excellence of Alicia Coutts and that sub 2:10 200m medley that buoyed her to new heights of self-belief and achievement.

Until this evening, my choice of sensational male swim was James Goddard's majestic 1:55 200 back that returned the crown to the Englishman eight years after he first earned it as a 19-year-old thrill of a talent with European junior championship pedigree already in his kit bag. 

Goddard's effort is the fourth best in the world this year. Tonight, Hayden, the 2007 world 100m free champion who was spotted at a swim club in Chilliwack by coach Tom Johnson back in 2001, became the world No 1 tonic Canada needed. 

After a poor day on Wednesday this week, head coach Randy Bennett, mentor to Ryan Cochrane, was asked whether this had been a reality check Canada. "I don’t think it’s a reality check, I think it’s a learning curve, I really believe that," said Bennett. "The bottom line is we have to take the lumps and get better. We got punched in the nose today and we’re going to come back. If we don’t respond, then we’re no good. But I think we’ll respond well."

A Canadian journalist wrote: "The response could come on Thursday from Hayden ... after a night of mediocrity, a response is surely needed."

And it was duly delivered and helped to lift Canada to a place more fitting for a nation that was once able to look Australia in the eye. The medals table after 4 of 6 days:

  • AUS       10      10       8      28
  • ENG        4        6        4      14
  • RSA        3        1        4       8
  • CAN       2         0        3      5
  • SCO        1        1         1      3
  • KEN        1        0         0      1
  • NZL        0        2          0     2
  • WAL       0        1          1     2

2010 shaping up to be somewhat different to the picture in 2006.

The last two days of racing will give a hint as to how much of an impact a swim like Hayden's can have on a team. Here's where his thriller fits: 

The fastest three textile-suit swims (Hayden notes - the only one in textile jammers, not pants)

  • 23.16 (24.68) 47.84 Pieter Van den Hoogenband (NED) 2000
  • 22.72 (25.19) 47.91 Stefan Nystrand (SWE) 2007
  • 22.82 (25.16) 47.98 Brent Hayden (CAN) 2010

The 2007 world title 

  • 23.24 (25.19) 48.43 Filippo Magnini (ITA)
  • 23.07 (25.36) 48.43 Brent Hayden (CAN)

The world crown was shared by the two men

After the boom and bust of 2008-09, the subtleties of those figures are as comforting as the haven of a clean, still room after a day of Delhi dawn to dusk drain and strain.

There is no magic to that subtlety, hard work of the kind that is standard fare for folk with the ability and drive of Hayden part of the mix, alongside many other small parts that go to make a huge whole, including self-belief, sheer will, a kind of slow-burn cognitive knowledge of self, a subconscious connection, perhaps, between self-awareness and instinctive feel for placing a limb, a hand, a finger where it might be best placed for the precision and purpose of speed.

SwimNews caught up with Hayden - for whom most of us need a box to stand on if we're to look the athlete in the eye - for a few moments on his way back from having hung around his neck what every swimmer wants: a gold medal. Here's how it went:

Describe what makes the difference between going 47.98 and 48.1.

"I think I just wanted it more. I saw how close I was before and I knew I didn't need anything different in my training, like being stronger or being in better shape or being committed differently. I just wanted it more. I felt like I was fading in the last 50 metres but I just kept telling myself 'come on, get there, get there." Hayden cups his hands points his fingers ready for entry and pull. "... then I just put my hand on the wall." Job done. 

At about 30m out from the end [homecoming lap], 20m out from the turn wall, Sullivan was with you, then you seemed to surge. Did you feel that. Did you think it was you surging or him sliding away? 

"It's hard for me to tell. I never really know if that's me moving," says Hayden making a gesture to indicate a sudden bolt forward. ""There’s always a time in the race where I actually do dig in deeper but I don't know if that's me going a little faster or just a case of holding on a little bit longer than [the swimmer in the next lane]. I don't really know what that is. I definitely know when I have to kick it in."

What matters most, the win, the time, how it places you in the world? 

BH: Both are accurate. I've never won a medal in the Commonwealth Games. That alone is really great. Then being number one in the world makes it that much more special.

You're No3 inside 48 without the shiny stuff...

"Yep, Actually I think it's number 1 just in jammer too. Hoogenband was wearing full trunks [pants to ankle] so I'm wearing less than thar. Wooooww...," joked Hayden, a part of him [perhaps his exposed lower legs] not laughing at all. Here's a man who is happy and thriving in a sport reborn.

What happens next?

"I go home and take a nice two and a half-week vacation. And then maybe Dubai [world short-course championships, December 2010], maybe not. Right now its leaning on me not going because its been like Pan Pacs and then here. I really need an off season, to then come back and get a really good block of training in. Shanghai [world long-course championships, July 2011] is the deal and if I don't go to Dubai so I can do well in Shanghai, so be it."

Time to go, urine to give, buses to catch, meals to eat, team meetings to attend, sleep to grab.

A swimming ambassador smiles, bids farewell and melts away down the well-trodden way of the press pen. Some see an ironbound gauntlet where others see a chance to tell it as they see it, frame their experience in their own words. The vast majority who flow this way are patient, polite and generous with their time and their plaudits for those they have raced against and those who have helped them step up to do the best they can. They are beckoned when they win and when they fall down.

Since the highs of 2007, Hayden has been there or there abouts, he's taken some blows, some knocks and watched race conditions tossed around like fishing boats in a storm. Like the best of 'em, he is a living embodiment of Kipling's If:

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;     ...

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!"

Hayden, man of the world, would seem to have the measure of those impostors - but today his if became his when, one that sent a warning on the way to London via Shanghai to any who aspire to the crown he craves.