…We mentioned this briefly last night in our Hot News section, but Tucson Ford has named Johno Fergusson as the interim head coach on their website, after former coach Kevin Milak was relieved of his duties a few weeks ago. Fergusson is relatively new to the program (though he has been around since well before the shift), and comes to Tucson from South Africa, where he was previously the head coach of the Sunday Tribune Penguins. There is a heavy South African contingent in the post-grad part of the team (including Darian Townsend), so he probably fit in pretty well there as a former National-level South African swimmer. This is not his first stop stateside, as back in 2010 he came by for some mentoring from Frank Busch. Not a ton of information is available about him online (he’s currently travelling in South Africa, so no comment is available yet), but I did come across this story that he was the head coach of the South African Down Syndrome Swimming Team at the 2010 Down Syndrome World Championships, where they broke 6 World Records. That makes him a good guy in my book…
..17-year old Eyglo Gustafsdottir continued to shred Icelandic swimming with another National Record today at the Icelandic National Championships. She swam a 2:10.38 in the 200 (long course) backstroke, which ranks 25th in the world this year. That is the third time she’s broken the record this year, and improved her 2:12.33 from the Spanish Open/Olympic Trials meet just two weeks ago. Earlier in the meet, she also crushed the National Record in the 200 IM with a 2:14.83. Full meet coverage available at aeger.is. Many (Most?) of Iceland’s best young swimmers end up in the US in the NCAA (Arni Arnason, an NCAA finalist from Old Dominion; Hilda Luthersdottir, also an NCAA finalist, at Florida; 43-time Icelandic National Champion Johanna Gustafsdottir at FIU; National Record holder Sigrun Sverrisdottir at Arkansas). American college coaches must be chomping at the bit over Eyglo…
…The Harvard women were looking for an assistant swim coach, though that listing has since come down, so there may be a new coach on the way there. Iowa is still looking for an assistant diving coach, and Oregon State’s women are still seeking an assistant coach (only 1 year of NCAA experience and a bachelor’s required, so may be a good stepping-stone position)…
Iceland may be a small country, but there is so much swim talent there.It is the law that every child learn to swim and the government even contributes to their swim lessons.They have some of the most incredible swimming complexes around.With unlimited geothermal energy, hot water is piped in and added to the cold water to adjust the temperature, with several “hot pots” or small pools filled with hot water that are perfect for relaxing in.The Icelandic people are decendents of the Original Norse Vikings with a little Irish thrown in….so many are gifted physically with young women regularly reaching 6 feet or taller.The food in Iceland is truly and naturally organic.There are no pesticides there because there are no… Read more »
I want to tell you tsk is training two times a day in the morning for 1,5 hours and in the evening 2 hours + dryland five days a week + 2 hours on saturdays.
I believe Jorno was the coach with Kevin at NCSAs. Kevin was clearly the one coaching the kids. I hope this was not a move on Eric’s part to make him more popular with South African recruits. I can tell you Eric has made many enemies with American club coaches, who will not trust someone who treated Kevin so poorly with their club swimmers.
Jorno, watch your back.