New national cycling coach 'athlete centred' | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Track cycling will be off in a different direction under new national coach Tim Carswell.

The 35-year-old was appointed last week as successor to fellow Christchurch coach Terry Gyde.

However, Carswell promises a different approach from Gyde and he's also relocating to Invercargill to take advantage of its new world-class velodrome.

Gyde who was Carswell's coach when he first came into the national team in 1995 had a very coach-centred approach whereas his approach was more athlete-centred, he said.

That involved more input from the cyclist, said Carswell, who cites Robbie Deans as an outstanding example of the athlete-centred coach.

He's confident the change will not harm our build-up for Beijing next year.

Carswell has been in charge of the very successful under-19 track team for three years, so he knows the younger riders and also worked with the older riders at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and at Oceania championships.

"That makes things a hell of a lot easier.

"It would have been a big challenge for somebody fresh coming in who didn't know anybody, if you brought in an international coach or something like that."

He knew the personalities of the riders and a lot of their strengths and weaknesses, he said.

Carswell brings a wealth of international experience from his own racing days. He rode at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in the teams pursuit, for eighth and sixth respectively, and won 20km scratch race and teams pursuit bronze medals at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.

He describes himself as "one of those guys they could chuck in anywhere," but his experience in a variety of events must also have helped his base for coaching.

Carswell effectively retired after tearing his shoulder muscle in a bad race crash in Dunedin in 2001, and that year he and wife Fiona, herself a top international rider, did a bicycle tour of Italy, Switzerland, France, and Belgium, arriving home a day before September 11.

He'd coached some young Canterbury riders before he retired, and in 2002 his expertise was utilised as an assistant coach at both the Commonwealth Games and junior worlds. He was the sprint coach at last year's Commonwealth Games.

Carswell is basing himself in Invercargill, where he rates the new velodrome one of the fastest tracks in the world.

The track team had to take advantage of it, and would probably use it for camps leading into big events. He'd also like to see a sprint programme set up there, because sprinters needed a year-round base.

It will be to some extent going home for Carswell, for both his parents are from Southland, and he rode for the province when he failed to make the Canterbury pursuit team as a young rider.

His grandfather was from a family of cyclists and boxers, and but for a twist of fate when he was at Christchurch Boys' High, it might be boxing that Carswell is coaching today.

He looked at both sports, but could not find a way into the boxing gym he was sent to.

"Less than a week later I was picked for the cycling team and ran with it from there. But it could have been a completely different direction for me I could be sitting here now with a broken nose!" Carswell believes our junior programmes have brought through an incredible amount of talent, particularly in the endurance events, and that there are riders capable of going really well in Beijing.

His appointment puts him in charge of our track riders through to the 2012 games.