A disillusioned Peter Gartrell leaves the state this week citing a lack of coaching and structure in the sport here.

‘‘I feel for swimmers in Tasmania who do have ability,’’ Gartrell said.

‘‘Some kids here have had a good start but if you could keep them working, you would not just have one national age winner, you could have a couple in each Olympic team.’’

Gartrell, who has guided more than 100 swimmers to national age championship level, is returning to the mainland less than a year after being heralded as the new coach of Launceston Aquatic Club.

He said lane hire fees at the aquatic centre and a lack of professional coaching in the state were behind his decision.

‘‘People running the sport here have to get more entrepreneurial and we need to educate coaches in the state,’’ Gartrell said.

‘‘There are no professional coaches here so the culture is lacking. People have got to do more training and it needs to be more professional and scientific.

‘‘There are kids in this town with the talent to win Australian titles but they need to work for it. It’s the environment and culture here that’s stopping them but if you don’t know any different you accept that as the norm.

‘‘I planned to finish my coaching career here and I was prepared to move the family down but I’m constantly battling this culture of people not wanting to work hard and the sport not being properly run.

‘‘There is nothing for me here.’’

Gartrell said Titmus had been swimming 60 kilometres a week for nine months before landing three freestyle titles at the national age championships in Sydney earlier this month, but suggested others were not willing to put in similar hours.

‘‘If you want results, you’ve got to do the work – in swimming you reap what you sow.

‘‘I suggested having a high-performance squad but you’d struggle to find five or six swimmers in the whole state prepared to do what Ariarne has.’’

Gartrell also expressed disappointment at lane hire fees, just a fortnight after LAC president Robyn Titmus raised similar concerns, telling a Launceston City Council committee that the club had paid $465,000 since the $26.9 million council-owned centre opened in 2009.

‘‘My coaching fees are less than half of the mainland because of the exorbitant lane hire here,’’ Gartrell said.

Swimming Tasmania declined to comment about Gartrell’s views.

At the city council’s Strategic Planning and Policy Committee meeting on April 9, general manager Robert Dobrzynski asked that operational and financial costings be prepared for aldermen, to be tabled at the end of this month.