Dubai: Velimir Stjepanovic's coach Chris Tidey will believe in his champion swimmer only when he lands a medal in Singapore next month.
"When he [Stjepanovic] is standing with medals around his neck, then I will know I have a champion with me," Tidey told Gulf News during a training session with the Serbian swimmer yesterday.
"What I do have is a bunch of very good swimmers in his [Stjepanovic] age group. I have another swimmer who has the components to be a champion. It is my job now to make sure all the components work together so that we have champions for the future," Tidey added.
Talent
A resident of Cambridge, England, Tidey came to Dubai on holidays and never returned.
He first started off at the GEMS Academy outsourcing nearly 150 competitive swimmers from the school to now head possibly one of the stronger swimming programmes in the UAE. "He is a talented swimmer and he has a nice feel on the water with nice long strokes to match his effortless style," Tidey said about his trainee.
"After his first competition in England we had a glimpse of what he could possibly do. And since then his times have not had a plateau. He has been very smooth and kept on improving all the time," the coach said.
"At the moment Velimir is focused on Singapore. And even though he will be younger than most of the others, I still think he will be a good match out there to some of the best swimmers in the world. He has shown tremendous improvement from last year."
