Tantrum expects big things from her trio
Don't ask respected coach Mel Tantrum to separate her three world championship-bound open water swimmers.
Tantrum has had the top Australian, New Zealand and Japanese open water swimmers under her tutelage for the past few months.
Perth's Australian title holder Rhys Mainstone has been with Tantrum for two years, while Kiwi Kane Radford and Japan's Yasunari Hirai recently made the move to Perth as part of a long-term build-up to the Rio Olympics in 2016.
A month out from the world championships, Tantrum says the trio are evenly matched and any one of the three could triumph in Barcelona, depending on the conditions.
A field of about 60 is expected in the 10km event.
"Rhys is important but I am keen to see these guys do well as well," Tantrum said.
"They are all world-class and they are all medal prospects. Ideally it would be one, two, three - gold, silver, bronze."
Tantrum said it was not a conflict to have three rivals training alongside each other.
The UWA coach said the university wanted to be an elite training base for the sport.
"We want to be recognised worldwide as excellent in that particular field," Tantrum said.
Tantrum's charges are currently swimming 100km a week over 12 sessions.
"They use each other for motivation," she said. "There has definitely been a big improvement in consistency of performance."
Mainstone, 23, agreed, saying it made him push himself harder.
"I am trying to beat them in every session," he said.
Mainstone said he had been happy with his build-up to Barcelona and believed he was prepared for a good performance.
Radford, who has known Tantrum since he was a teenager, conceded he was more focused on Rio than the world championships.
The 22-year-old is committed to staying in Perth and is enjoying training with Mainstone and Hirai.
"It is definitely a long-term move for me, it is not just a short fix," he said. "You can't slacken off at all because the one day you slacken off, they could be feeling really good and make you look like a fool."
Hirai, 23, is determined to win a medal at Rio after competing at London and believed Perth was the perfect training base.
"In Japan open water swimming is a minor sport, but in Australia it is a major sport," he said.
