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Dunn cracks swimming's top level

By Jaquelin Magnay, The Age, 5 December 1995

Electrifying medley swimmer Matthew Dunn finally cracked the top ranks of international swimming, when he collected his third gold medal at the world short-course championships in Rio de Janeiro yesterday.

The Sydneysider beat his arch rival, Canadian Curtis Myden - the same swimmer he overhauled and beat by a fingernail in the dramatic last lap of the 400 metres individual medley at the Commonwealth Games - but this time it was by nearly two seconds in the 200 metres individual medley.

Dunn's time of 1:56.86 was the third fastest in the history of the event and was two seconds off the world record held by Jan Sievinen, of Finland.

Earlier in the championships, Dunn, 22, had toyed with Myden and Poland's Marcin Malinksi in the 400 medley. He was part of the victorious 4 x 200 freestyle relay team and collected a silver in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay.

Dunn was named male swimmer of the championships.

Asked if he had expected to win a golden treble, Dunn replied: ``I did, actually. I had been training really well and consistently and I was even hoping to come close to the 400 medley world record, but in that race I had to play my cards right with a tactical swim to win the event.

``This is the best I've ever swum at a meet of this sort of standard. I kept extremely relaxed throughout the meet and that paid off for me.''

Dunn praised the support of his Australian teammates, who were among the most vocal of the competing nations at poolside.

``There's been an unbelievable team spirit that's snowballed throughout the competition and that really helped build confidence, '' he said.

``When any of the Australians got up to swim, the whole team just went wild. They were only behind the Brazilians with their cheering.''

The Rio performance has given Dunn's confidence a huge boost, especially after a disappointing world championships result last year in Rome.

At the time he had problems peaking for the worlds, which came just 10 days after the Australians' successful Commonwealth Games campaign, but he said yesterday that lack of concentration was behind him.

``This is a big breakthrough for me, just being able to utilise the feeling of an international competition to help my performance along,'' he said.

``The difference is that I am more confident and focusing on myself and I'm training smarter, not doing the long and hard stuff.''

Dunn appears to have benefited from the stabilising influence of the Australian Institute of Sport's Barry Prime, who was caretaker coach in Rio because his usual coach, Gennadi Touretski, remained in Canberra.

He has also consolidated his spot near the top of the world rankings since targeting the 200 medley race, and changing his training to shorter, sharper sessions.