Swimming Australia announces squad for the IM in Los Angeles – Swimming News
Swimming Australia has announced their squad for the upcoming Individual Medley Championships, to be held at Los Angeles, in July, 2011.
The selected swimmers include Olympians Ashley Callus and Sophie Edington in the squad.
On the other hand, Leith Brodie, Daniel Tranter, Bronte Campbell and Remy Fairweather will vie in IM, due to their recent consistent performances.
National youth coach, Vince Raleigh said, “Competing at this meet gives athletes the ideal chance to prepare for a major competition around the same time as the world championships, and provides that additional focus for training leading into the next year’s
Australian Championships and Olympic selection trials.”
He further added that IM will definitely give a great chance to swimmers to compete with world class performers in Los Angeles. More importantly, it will give an international exposure to their swimmers.
He said that the ultimate goal of the Australia A side is to create more pressure on those swimmers, who are currently on the team. This means that they will be definitely able to build-up the best swimming team, for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Raleigh said that they had announced 20 athletes on their Swimming A Australia squad for 2011, out of which ten swimmers will take part in the World University Games to be held in Shenzhe, China. The championship in China will be held from August 14-19.
World University Games is considered to be one of the most popular swimming events in the world today. There is a tradition of sending renowned Olympians in this championship every year.
Raleigh added, “With more than 50 athletes on the team for Shanghai already and this chance for a further 20 to get quality racing opportunities overseas, it’s just another opportunity to get that upward pressure coming onto the senior team.”
Australia A team will leave their homeland on July 10, whereas, the national swimming team will depart to China on the same date for the World University Games.
Meanwhile, five-time Olympic champion, Ian James Thorpe of Australia has disclosed that he might be able to compete with the 14-time Olympic champion, Michael Fred Phelps in the 200m freestyle event at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Thorpe has been dedicatedly preparing hard these days with his coach, Gennadi Touretski in Switzerland. He is very confident to compete in the 200m free meet in London. This news has certainly created a huge spark and thrill in the international media right
now.
The Australian swimmer’s coach, Touretski has claimed that Thorpe is really working hard, but it will depend upon his fitness whether he will vie in the 200m free meet in London.
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