Alicia Coutts improves her timings after a three week altitude training camp – Swimming News
The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games champion, Alicia Coutts has improved her timings after an exhaustive three-week altitude training camp at the Sierra Nevada.
The five-time Commonwealth Games champion, Coutts earned the crowd’s respect, when she earned the gold medal of the 200m Individual Medley (IM) at the Mare Nostrum Series in Barcelona. Coutts clocked a remarkable time of 2 minutes and 09.68 seconds to claim
the gold medal of the 200m IM.
Her time ranks first in the 2011 early world rankings, whereas she is also the only swimmer to post a sub 2 minutes and 10.00 seconds effort in 2011.
Coutts, who won the gold medals of 4*100m medley relay, 4*100m freestyle relay, 200m IM, 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly at the Delhi Games, has sent a threatening message to her strongest rival, Stephanie Rice.
Rice, who is the three-time 2008 Beijing Olympic Games gold medalist, recovered from her ankle surgery a few months earlier. She posted an effort of 2 minutes and 10.41 seconds, which is her personal best for 2011.
In addition, Coutts, who had a previous best time of 2:09.70 minutes, improved her timing by 0.02 seconds, after the altitude camp.
While expressing her thoughts about the training camp and her improved timing, Coutts said, “I came in here with no real expectations so my times were a real bonus. Training at altitude was tough, so this was very much an unexpected and welcome surprise.”
Her coach, John Fowlie, was very impressed with her performance and stated that Coutts had never attended an altitude camp in her life.
“We were really happy with the training in Sierra Nevada, we knew she was in a pretty good spot, but you never know how swimmers will adjust once they come down from altitude. It can be a bit hit and miss. But looking at the way she's swum here, she's taken
a step forward,” Fowlie said
In addition, Coutts expressed that she was prepared for the 2011 Shanghai World Championships and she would try to meet the expectations of her fans by defending her title at the world stage.
Tags: