Yannick Agnel eyes 200m freestyle as his main event for the 2011 World Championships – Swimming News
The European champion for the 400m freestyle, Yannick Agnel, has announced that his main concern will remain on the 200m freestyle at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships, this July.
France’s Agnel has demonstrated remarkable performances at the 2011 France National Swimming Championships, securing his spot for the 2011 World Championships.
With the announcement, Agnel has sent an indirect threat to the 200m freestyle heroes including the world champion, Germany’s Paul Biedermann, South Korea’s Park Tae-Hwan and USA’s Michael Phelps and Peter Vanderkaay.
Phelps won the 200m freestyle gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, ahead of Tae-Hwan and Vanderkaay. Tae-Hwan won the 400m freestyle gold medal at same Olympics and is preparing hard to defend his titles of the 200m and 400m event.
Recently, the 18-year-old French swimmer suffered a lung infection that caused an interruption in his training schedule and he remained away from the pool for many days. Nevertheless, the coach of the young athlete, Fabrice Pellerin, told the media that
Agnel returned to the pool in May 2011 and has been posting impressive timings during his training session.
The coach also said that he has revised Agnel’s training program to 15km a day, as Agnel intends to compete with the strongest athletes in the swimming world. The French swimmer will compete in the events of 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 4*100m freestyle
relay and the 4*200m freestyle relay at the world titles.
Agnel said, “The priority is the 200m. It is better to concentrate on a target, or at most two, rather than to run after several hares.”
Furthermore, the 18-year-old swimmer has planned an extensive competitive plan before the Shanghai championships. Yannick will participate at the Canet-en-Roussillon, Monaco and the Paris Open championships during the month of June, where he will compete
three times in the 200m freestyle, two-times in the 400m events and only once in the 100m freestyle.
Agnel is very hopeful of earning a podium finish at the upcoming Shanghai World Championships, saying that he will make his country proud at these championships.
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