James Magnussen wants to lower the 100m freestyle record at the 2012 London Olympics – Swimming News
The Australian 100m freestyle specialist, James Magnussen has cleared his intention by declaring that he wants to break the 100m freestyle record at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The 20-year-old Magnussen, who stunned everyone by acquiring gold medal of the 100m freestyle at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, is very aggressive about his timing in the 100m discipline.
Magnussen captured gold medal of the 100m freestyle at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships by submitting a time of 47.63 seconds.
His scintillating effort at the South Australian meet in January, where he obtained gold medal of the 100m event in a time of 48.05 seconds, sent a disturbing message to his competitors. His time is the fastest in the 2012 so far.
The Australian proclaimed to lower his time at the NSW meet, but he remained considerably slower from his season’s best and clocked an effort of 49.02 seconds for the title.
After his sluggish effort in Sydney, the world champion articulated his desire that he wants to improve Cesar Cielo’s world mark of 46.91 seconds. He explained that it would have been a lot easier to shatter the record at trials, if he had improved his timing
in Sydney, but now, breaking the record is only possible at the forthcoming Olympic Games.
“If you'd asked me after my 100m in Adelaide I would have said for sure,'' he said of the record at trials,” he said.
“This week I've reassessed a little. It really depends on how much we taper for trials and if we save that massive taper for Olympics. At this stage I think we'd be happy with somewhere around worlds time [the 47.49s he swam at the world titles] or a little
bit quicker at trials, and then do a big taper for Olympics and have a real crack at that record,” he added.
Nevertheless, with the return of Kenrick Monk in the pool, the competition for 100m freestyle is going to be tougher as both Monk and Ian Thorpe are trying to confirm their spots in the Australian team to Olympics through the 100m freestyle.
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