Grant Hackett places firm belief on Australian swimmers for the 2012 London Olympics – Swimming News
Three-time Olympic Games gold medallist, Grant Hackett, believes that the new generation of Australian swimmers have the full potential to add stars to the international stages of sports.
Hackett is the one of the greatest long distant freestyle swimmers in the world, who remained undisputed in the 1500m freestyle from 1997 to 2007 and improved several world records. He was defeated for the very first time in the 2008 Beijing Olympics from
Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, who out-touched him with a difference of a very few microseconds.
Hackett expressed his firm belief on the new athletes, who will be representing the Australian team in the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai and then in the 2012 London Olympics. While speaking to the media about the Australian Open Swimming Nationals
in Sydney, he said that now is the right time for swimmers to improve the early world timings set by Dutch, French and British swimmers.
He also said that the eight-day championship is going to be interesting, as Nugent has expressed his desire to take only those swimmers to Shanghai, who will finish their races under the world’s top twelve timings. This makes qualification tougher for swimmers,
as they need to cross the barrier to contest in the main event.
He said that the performance of their swimmers at the National Championships and then at the World Championships will project their standings at the world’s mega event in London, next year.
Hackett added, “The World Championship trials will really see how we are going. That will put them under the microscope a bit and see what work needs to be done between now and London 2012.”
He also raised his concern that swimmers are only able to improve their timings in bits, from one world championship to another. Hackett said that Olympics is just 15 months away from now, so their swimmers need more training, as FINA has made the Olympics
and World Championships qualification a bit tougher than before. Despite of the strict qualification criteria set by FINA, the Olympic legend is very hopeful that Australians will shine at the podium in London.
Hackett was confident of his athletes and said, “We've always taken pride in how we perform as a nation at the Olympic Games. The longer we continue to support our Olympians and see them through, I think it means a lot to this country, a lot more than people
recognise,”
The champion said that even with the return of Ian Thorpe, Geoff Huegill and Michael Klim, Hackett has no desire of returning to the pool. He articulated that after the 2008 Beijing event, he is very happy to move on and deal with the other important things
in his life.
He also added that Thorpe has the potential to do anything but he will be facing a tough time from Eamon Sullivan, who owns the crown of the Australian 100m freestyle.
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