James Magnussen happy to face Ian Thorpe in the 100m freestyle event – Swimming News
The Australian champion, James Magnussen has expressed that he is happy to face five-times Olympics champion, Ian Thorpe in the 100m freestyle.
Magnussen, who dominated the Men’s 100m freestyle by overwhelming Eamon Sullivan at the 2011 Australian National Swimming Championships, feels honoured to compete with the Australian comeback king. Magnussen clocked the world’s fastest time of 48.29 seconds
for the year 2011 to defeat the five times Australian 100m freestyle champion, Eamon at those championships.
Thorpe, who retired in 2006, has returned to competitive swimming in February 2011 and aims to represent his country in the 100m freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics. Thorpe articulated that he will be targeting the 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and the
4*100m freestyle relay for the 2012 Olympics trials.
Thorpe has been training under the guidance of Russian Coach, Gennadi Touretski, who enlightened the careers of Alexander Popov and Michael Klim. Thorpe has been training with Touretski at his training camp base in Switzerland but he is expected to return
to Australia in a short time to join the squad of elite Australian swimmers.
In addition, the 20-year-old Magnussen feels delighted to have the opportunity to swim with one of his strongest competitors, Thorpe.
Magnussen considers the opportunity perfect for him and said, "To have Thorpie in my event is certainly great for media exposure and it's just great to boost the level of competition in that event. To have him training with me can only benefit me. It's a
really positive thing and I know he'll be a force to be reckoned with in the training pool and the competition pool."
Furthermore, Gennadi had uttered that a sub 48 seconds effort would be sufficient to claim the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, while a sub 47.5 seconds effort would be adequate to pocket the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
Thorpe will resume competitive swimming in November 2011, as the nine-month ban imposed on him by FINA will be lifted up. Then, the two Australian stars will compete with each other to secure their spots in the Australian team to the London Olympic Games.
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