Aussie coach Hawke pushes sprint team to believe

Brazilian Cesar Cielo stormed to 100m freestyle gold at the World Championships in a world record of 46.91sec on Thursday and then paid tribute to his Australian coach Brett Hawke.

Brazilian Cesar Cielo stormed to 100m freestyle gold at the World Championships in a world record of 46.91sec on Thursday and then paid tribute to his Australian coach Brett Hawke, seen here in 2005 when still competing.

Hawke is a former Australian Olympian who also won a silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 1995 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro.

Now he coaches a team of sprinters out of Auburn University in the United States and Cielo is his star pupil.

"For 50m or 100m freestyle you can practice a lot but you need a strong mind and having Brett pushing me was a big thing for me," said Cielo.

"I don't think there's any magic behind swimming fast. A lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and belief."

That belief, so crucial to Cielo, is something that Hawke insists he's been working hard to instil in his charge.

And there's not just Cielo in his group but also the bronze medallist behind the Brazilian, Frederick Bousquet of France and Australian Matt Targett, the silver medallist here in the 50m butterfly, among others.

"I have a small professional group of athletes with Cesar, Fred, Matt Targett ... athletes from all over the world," said Hawke.

"They're very talented and they're pushing each other every day to be the best. I think we have the best sprint team in the world and I think were proving it."

However, despite working with such a talented bunch of swimmers, Hawke reveals that his biggest job is pushing them beyond what they think they are capable of.

"The easiest thing is to get them to come to train because they want to be the best, they want to come," he said.

"The hardest thing is making them believe they can be better than what they think they are, that's the challenge.

"We as humans set limits on ourselves and we see these world records as limits. I try to look beyond the limits, that's my role, that's a challenge for me every day."

With Cielo the challenge for Hawke was to take him on to the next level following his bronze medal in the 100m freestyle at the Olympics in Beijing last year.

"I try to take him beyond what he thinks he can do think, that's the role of any great coach," added the Australian.

"Once you've got the bronze in Beijing, the belief came and once you've got the belief in the mind every day, every week, this (the world record) is possible."

Going into the final here in Rome, French Olympic champion Alain Bernard had been the fastest qualifier and was probably the favourite, but Hawke had a plan to beat him.

"The plan was to get a lead at the start and then look back. I wanted him to get the lead in the first 15m and then continue," he said.

"I thought in the semi-final he backed off when he got into the lead. I wanted him to get into his natural flow.

"He's the fastest man in the world so there's no need for him to slow down after his first 50m.

"Cesar has the best start in the world. The first 15m is crucial in a sprint and Cesar is easily the fastest.

"It's always a challenge for a sprinter to haul back into the lead once an athlete has a great start.

"You've got to explore our strengths and Alain's weaknesses and I think we exploited it. That's his only weaknesses, he's a bit slow off the start."