Leigh Nugent confident to secure second spot in swimming at the 2011 World Championships
Australian Swimming head coach, Leigh Nugent, is confident of the performance of his swimmers at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, this July. He is comfortable with hoping for a second position in the overall swimming rankings, at the 2011 World
Championships.
Nugent also claimed that Australian swimmers will not only earn the second spot in Shanghai but they can also take Australia among the top three at the 2012 London Olympics.
The Australian swimmers demonstrated their guzzling swims at the Australian Nationals for eight days. Nugent set a tougher time bar for his swimmers in order to qualify for the 2011 World Championships. He claimed that swimmers posting their times under
the world’s top twelve, will be able to confirm their spot in the Australian Team for Shanghai. Nugent’s tough selection criteria halted the hopes of many including Geoff Huegill and Stephanie Rice, who despite of their gold medals at the championship failed
to post a time under the top twelve timings.
After the conclusion of the Championship, Nugent announced the Australian team of 45 swimmers that comprised of a relaxed selection criteria. He included all those swimmers in the team who reached the podium for a gold or silver medal, as the world event
precedes the 2012 London Olympics.
Nugent asserted that his tough time qualification standard technique was mandatory. He expressed that his tough standard forced many swimmers to display an extraordinary performance.
Nugent said, "The aim of setting our own qualifying times was to raise the standard of performance and competition nationally, and we have certainly seen that in a number of events over the last eight days."
He explained the reason for taking some of the Olympic medallists, who failed to achieve top two finishes at the championship, as an important step of the preparation for London 2012.
Nugent added, "With this in mind, we have extended the selection criteria to include all available first and second place getters from Olympic events who have met the FINA qualifying times [set by the governing body for the world titles]."
He also stressed that last year no Australian could rank first in any FINA organised events. This happened for the first time in last two decades. He emphasised that beating a top 12 timing criteria is not going to help Australia to finish top three at London
Olympics. The coach said that swimmers need to put more effort to regain their standings.
He seemed comfortable with the comeback of Australian superstars including Libby Trickett, Ian Thorpe and Michael Klim.
Tags: