12:00a.m. 9th July 2008

| By Jon Tuxworth

No one can accuse Sunshine Coast swimmer Samantha Hamill of taking an easy path to the Olympics.

When her coach Peter Gartrell relocated to the Coast from Melbourne the 17-year-old followed suit, leaving her father and brother behind in Bleak City.

That decision was proven a wise one when she qualified for Beijing in the 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly at the Olympic trials in March.

And Gartrell believes she’s capable of featuring in a final in a month’s time.

That confidence was justified over the weekend when Hamill put together promising performances at the Sydney Grand Prix.

Hamill finished just 0.65 seconds behind Jessicah Schipper in the 200m butterfly final, and was next best behind world record holder Stephanie Rice in the 400IM.

“We were happy with how she went,” Gartrell said. “At this point in time, we’re hoping Sam will make the final of the 200 butterfly. She’s ranked eleventh in the world at the moment going into it.

“The 400IM though is going to be extremely difficult, because the standard of that particular event has gone up in leaps and bounds the past few months. Ricey and (American swimmer) Katie Hoff have really raised the bar, but we’re hoping she can swim under 4.40, which would be an Australian record for a 17-year-old.”

The Sydney Grand Prix was the Australian team’s last competitive outing before the Olympics.

And, with the Olympic finals set to be held in the morning to suit US television, the meet adopted a similar schedule to help the swimmers retune their body clocks.

“I don’t think it (morning finals) will be a problem for Sam at all,” Gartrell said.

“We’ve always made a practice of doing very hard sets in the morning, and everyone’s in the same boat so there’s no unfairness.”

The Coast’s other Olympic swimming representative, Melanie Schlanger, withdrew from the meet due to illness.