Swimming: Baker won't be happy until the Penny drops

She's a world-beater at 25. Gary Lemke talks to the Kiwi-based Sheffield swimmer still flying the flag

For the past 10 years Zoe Baker has been waiting for the bus to take her to fame and fortune. In typical fashion, two arrived in quick succession. A world short-course record of 30.53 seconds in South Africa on 4 January was followed by another, this time 30.51, at a World Cup meeting in Italy during the week.

That the mark was bettered by four-hundredths of a second by Luo Xuejuan, of China, in the latest chapter of their rivalry in Paris yesterday should not detract from the Briton's achievements. For the World Cup circus moves to Stockholm and Berlin this week, where Baker gets a chance to snatch it back.

Fame may be finally coming for one of the sport's older generation, but fortune is not following, not yet at least. Sheffield born and bred, Baker has lived in New Zealand since 1996, while her sole sponsors (swimwear manufacturers Diana) are Italian. In fact the reason she swam in Imperia – shaving 0.02sec off her world record – was to thank her sponsors. Baker does not attempt to hide her disappointment at the lack of financial assistance here. "I used to receive Lottery funding, but that has fallen away," she said while spending time with her parents in Sheffield this week before heading off to Europe.

"I am well looked after by Diana [who also supply the British team], but because I'm a 50m sprinter, even as world record holder I don't qualify for British funding. Though there's a 50m event at the Commonwealth Games and world championships, the shortest Olympic distance is 100m, which means some swimmers ranked moderately in the world [over 100m] benefit from financial assistance," she said.

Given that she has put two 50m world breaststroke records behind her name, the obvious question is why Baker isn't equally effective over 100m. After all, the now-retired Penny Heyns, of South Africa, broke 14 world records over 50, 100 and 200m, in long- and short-course.

"It's something I have been asking myself for 10 years," Baker says. "The 100m is just 25 metres too far for me. I am an out-and-out sprinter and the irony about my two world records is that I hate short-course swimming. My focus is on Penny's 50m world long-course record (30.83) and hopefully I will do it at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in July."

As fate would have it, Baker's first world record came in the pool where Heyns claimed her first, in 1996. "I knew straight away I had broken it, though the pool announcer didn't. But they asked me to do a lap of honour moments later."

Baker is refreshingly honest regarding her shortcomings, especially for someone who could be sitting back and basking in her new-found global recognition. "I've got awful turns... my pull-out and break-out can be much better. . . if I swim the perfect race I think I'll break 30 seconds," she says candidly.

Five years ago, her career appeared to be winding down. Kim Swanwick, her coach at the University of Sheffield, had relocated to New Zealand and Baker's stroke was a self-confessed "mess". Her father suggested she take a scholarship and revisit Swanwick in Christchurch.

"Kim's very much science-specific and allows me to train by myself. It helps that I've started understanding my body too. No more getting up to train at 5am; now it's 9, 10am. I'm in the gym every day, and Kim says it's in the mid to late 20s when a woman is at her peak in terms of strength.

"Everything is now geared towards quality and not quantity. These days I swim about 1,500m a day, as opposed to 3km. I've settled in New Zealand and consider it as my second home; in fact I have citizenship and a Kiwi passport, but I could never bring myself to swim for anyone other than Britain. Never."

And it's under the British flag that Baker intends being a show-stopper at the Commonwealth Games. "I'm going to try to lower the short-course record along the way to April's world championships in Moscow, and then concentrate on the 50m long-course."

At the moment Baker and another British veteran, Mark Foster (50m freestyle), hold world short-course records, but Baker is determined to help lead the country into calmer waters in Manchester later this year after the calamity of Sydney 2000, where Team GB failed to earn a medal.

Baker's best long-course returns in major events are 50m bronze in the world championships in Fukuoka last year and 50m silver (1999 and 2000) in the European championships.

Given that in the 100m breaststroke final in Sydney a 16-year-old, Megan Quann, won gold, Baker's days seemed numbered. After all, most 25-year-olds at poolside could well be mistaken for parents or officials. But Baker, five weeks shy of her 26th birthday, believes her best is yet to come. Given her start to 2002, not many can argue with that.