Alan swam with a squad across town, who had my main rival in their squad. I was training alone but had good relations with most contemporaries, except this squad. 

Years later, Alan had heard I was living in the States and had heard I let Kiwis come and stay as they saved their pennies. So out of the blue, he wrote to ask if I minded if he stayed. Of course not! He came. We knew well of each other but didn’t know each other, so initially, it was a simple guest relationship. We exchanged memories about championship meets etc. but every morning we went out on training runs and exercise. The third day we were running through the woods when Alan stopped me and said: Gjoko, I need to tell you, you are a nice guy. Out of the blue I was stunned and said, that’s nice, thank you but where on earth did the need to say this come from? He then retold how the father of my rival had poisoned the well of their squad with tales of what a horrible person I was and without detail created the standoff feeling I had experienced.