7:00am Thursday 5th November 2009
By Roger Guttridge
ANOTHER of Bournemouth Dolphins’ leading swimmers is heading for Millfield School as the fallout from former chief coach Graham Bassi’s summer departure to Swansea continues.
Just two months after European Youth Olympic champion Amelia Maughan abruptly changed her plans to accept a Millfield scholarship, 14-year-old Joe Poynter has announced that he too will be heading for Millfield in the next couple of weeks.
Also like Maughan, he plans to retain his membership of Dolphins and train at Littledown during the school holidays.
His father Chris Poynter stressed that the move was no reflection on the Bournemouth club or on 26-year-old Sam Woodward, who was recently promoted from assistant coach to head coach following Bassi’s departure.
Poynter Snr said: “We are quite happy with what Sam is doing here. We have told him it’s no reflection on him and his reaction was absolutely brilliant.
“He said Joe would be welcome back here at any time.
“But Millfield can offer things that Dolphins can’t including a 50m training pool on site.”
Poynter said his son, who has accepted a swimming scholarship, already knew some of the other swimmers at Millfield and was influenced by the fact that his arch-rival at national level, Sheffield swimmer Matthew Johnson, trains in a 50m pool every day.
“This is Joe’s own decision. He has been doing this (at Bournemouth) for three years and feels he needs to have a new challenge,” said Poynter Snr.
“The 50m pool is the biggest single thing. He is mainly a long distance swimmer and wants to have a go at that.
“He also knows that Matthew Johnson trains in a 50m pool.”
Poynter said he was interested in the way Joe responded when he met Millfield’s young Australian head coach, Jolyon Finck.
“The way Jolyon talks with Joe, I can just see Joe responding to him as he did when he first met Graham,” he said.
But he added: “Millfield might not suit Joe and he might be back by the new year.
“Bournemouth Dolphins is his home club and he will be training here in the holidays.”
Woodward said he was disappointed at Joe Poynter’s decision but would continue to help him if he could.
“I was aware Joe was going to Millfield for a week to see if he liked it,” he said.
“I knew we couldn’t compete with their facilities and that they would put on a big show to attract swimmers in.
“I didn’t think Joe would go but swimming is an individual sport, you have to look after yourself and if he thinks it’s best for him, he’s got to go for it.”
But he added: “I’m gutted not to have the opportunity to work with him.
“I was confident I could help him to achieve a lot this season – I had big plans for him.
“Millfield is one of several projects around the country which have a reputation for importing swimmers rather than producing their own.
“It’s frustrating when you produce a swimmer to lose him like this but it’s not just a problem for us – it’s a problem across the country.”
Poynter is still keen to swim for the combined Bournemouth-Ferndown team in the National Arena Swimming League.
Having already swum in round one, he is ineligible to swim for Millfield in either the remaining two regional rounds or the national final in April.
However, given that Bournemouth-Ferndown are likely to be among Millfield’s closest rivals in both finals, it will be interesting to see if the Somerset school raises any objection.
Like Amelia Maughan, Poynter is seen as a genuine prospect for international honours in the future.
He has already won English and UK schools titles in record-breaking times and a stack of silver medals in national age group championships, all of them behind swimming prodigy Johnson.
Several times he has broken a British age group record only for Johnson to swim even quicker in the same event.
Despite being only 14, Poynter currently holds seven senior and nine junior Dorset county records including all eight records for the 800m and 1500m freestyle (long- and short-course, senior and junior).
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