Moss Burmester, the 2006 Commonwealth 200m butterfly champion, has quit the sport with an attack on "the lack of trust" and an unhelpful atmosphere at the heart of his federation, Swimming New Zealand. Within 24 hours of confirming his retirement in the wake of a disappointing show at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last month, Burmester told a domestic radio station that he would provide further details of what had made him so unhappy after discussing those issue with funding agency Sparc.

Burmester, 29, claimed that poor administration had spoiled his final year in the sport.  He told Radio Sport of his anger over the treatment of his coach at North Shore Swimming Club, Thomas Ansorg, referring to his mentor having been "forced out" of the picture before the Games in Delhi. No details of why that had happened were given. The 'fly ace said: "I lost my coach and that was really hard. That was a turning point for me because that only happened eight weeks before Comm Games. That, for me, I found that really really hard. We saw that he was getting forced out slowly and in the end I guess he jumped before he got pushed, which is pretty sad. There was a lot of ill-feeling before the Commonwealth Games, almost enough that I was going to pull out before the Games. I thought about not going. I tried to sweep it under the carpet because I knew it was going to affect my performance."

Contacted by New Zealand Press Association, SNZ chief executive Mike Byrne referred all comment to high performence manager Jan Cameron, who was reported by the agency to be unavailable for comment today. Earlier, she had issued a statement that read: "He [Burmester] worked very hard and together with coach Thomas Ansorg, we provided him with the opportunity to grow into an outstanding butterfly swimmer who got the best out of himself. The opportunities to train with world and Olympic champion Michael Phelps and others gave Moss further opportunities to develop. He got the very best out of his natural ability and he was an outstanding contributor in and out of the water."

Falling shy of providing details at this stage, Burmester told the radio station: "It's more the atmosphere at Swimming New Zealand and how things are being run there at the moment. The lack of trust really. You shouldn't have those distractions when you're training or when you go away. As you get older you become aware of it and you don't fit the mould quite so well." He said that he was being "diplomatic" by not naming names but he would do so if Sparc did not force change in the system to improve the lot of younger swimmers.