Legendary Olympian, Ian Thorpe: An overview of his comeback performances – Part 3
After failing to qualify for the 100m Individual Medley (IM) final, Thorpe was now scheduled to swim in his most desirable event, the 100m freestyle on initial day of the Beijing leg at the 2011 Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) Swimming World Cup Series.
After six years of retirement and nine-months of training, the arena was very excited to see the comeback king in the 100m freestyle event. Before that, everyone had just seen a glimpse of his freestyle during the IM event.
Thorpe was listed to compete in the third heat of the race, where he was going to face the duo of strongest Chinese swimmers, Haiqi Jiang and Yuhui Jiang. He ended fifth in his heat by submitting an effort of 50.21 seconds in the four-lap short course event.
Nonetheless, his gruelling effort was not up to the mark and he failed to qualify for the freestyle playoff as he ranked fifteenth in the overall list.
His effort was nearly two seconds slower than the fastest qualifying swimmer and his teammate, Kyle Morgan Richardson, who notched the top spot with an effort of 48.22 seconds. Jiang reported a time of 48.48 seconds and was ranked second fastest in the preliminary session.
The third fastest spot was secured by South African veteran, Chad Guy Bertrand Le Clos, who remained 0.26 seconds slower and hit the wall with a time of 48.74 seconds.
Thorpe’s swim was just 0.71 seconds slower from Robert John Hurley of Australia, who occupied final qualification spot by clocking a time of 49.60 seconds.
The 29-year-old Thorpe was nervous at the time of race, but he seemed relaxed after the swim, as this was his first freestyle swim in the last six years. Most importantly, now he knew what he had to accomplish, if he wants to earn his qualification in the Australian team for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Subsequently, the Australian expert returned to the starting blocks on the second day of the competition for his final participation of the tournament, the 100m butterfly. Once again, he demonstrated constancy in his pace as he occupied thirteenth finishing spot of the race by producing an effort of 54.35 seconds.
His effort in Beijing was just 0.26 seconds slower than his performance in Singapore, where he ended eleventh in the same event. Despite of his non-qualifying efforts in all swims, Thorpe was determined to compete at the last stop of World Cup Series in Tokyo from November 12-13.
Surprisingly, the former Olympic champion expressed satisfaction over his performance and unveiled his plan that he is not attempting to qualify for the finals, but to give his best shot.
While talking to the media, the Australian showed no signs of frustration but he was optimistic and proclaimed that he feels good about his recent performance. Furthermore, his coach, Gennadi Touretski was also happy with Thorpe’s timing and told that he will be better than before.
Afterwards, Thorpe declared that he would be looking forward to compete in the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly races at the final stop of FINA Series in Japan.
He was also listed to compete in the 100m IM discipline at Tokyo, but later on, he decided to back off from the race, as he wanted to shift his focus entirely towards the freestyle and butterfly events.
To be continued in Part 4.
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