September 1st 2010 is a day that fans of Australian swimming can breathe a sigh of relief.
This just in from Libby Trickett's Twitter account:-
So I guess it's official? I'm officially starting back swimming. I must admit I'm excited about smelling like chlorine 24/7 again!!
The reigning Olympic champion on the 100m Butterfly and World Bronze medallist on the 100m Freestyle in Rome last year is getting back into the water after a year off. Trickett took an extended break from the sport in September last year before officially retiring on 14 December 2009.
This comes as welcome news to the Aussie women's team. Despite some outstanding individual swims at Pan Pacs, the Aussie women were swept by Team USA on all three relay events. Trickett, a proven relay swimmer, will provide added strength to an already strong team.
Assuming the comeback goes smoothly (a year out of the water shouldn't be too hard to come back from), Australia are right back in the hunt for the 4 x 100m Medley relay at Worlds (took Silver in 2009 without Leisel Jones) and Olympics (reigning champions). USA and China will be the main competition.
Aussie potential team:-
Emily Seebohm - Backstroke
Leisel Jones - Breaststroke
Jessicah Schipper/Libby Trickett/Steph Rice - Butterfly
Libby Trickett/Yolane Kukla - Freestyle
USA potential team:-
Natalie Coughlin/Elisabeth Pelton/Missy Franklin - Backstroke
Rebecca Soni/Jess Hardy - Breaststroke
Christine Magnuson/Dana Vollmer - Butterfly
Natalie Coughlin/Dana Vollmer/Jess Hardy/Amada Weir - Freestyle
China potential team:-
Zhao Jing/Gao Chang - Backstroke
Chen Huijia/Ye Sun - Breaststroke
Liu Zige/Jiao Liuyang - Butterfly
Pang Jiaying/Tang Yi - Freestyle
USA and Australia are evenly matched and with Trickett's potential to be the fastest freestyler or fly swimmer from all the names listed above and China's wildcard nature we should have a real race on our hands. Game on.
(I wonder if Trickett's decision will spur Thorpedo to get back involved in time for London 2012?)
China always over-perform, the breatstrokers swim about 1.07/1.06 and then swim 1.04.3 in the relays, Zige will easily swim a 56. leg, and chang is amazing, Although i think Austrlia have the best team, USA team is great aswell.
ReplyDeleteSome outside chances for me are Japan, Terakawa-Suzuki-Kato-Ueda,
Russia: Zueva-Efimova-Bespelova-Nesterova
GB: Spofforth-Bushell-Halsall-Smith
Bushell can probably improve to atleast a low 1.07 swimmer by 2012, and smith is as good as Tang yi, So bronze is a definate possibilty, All depends on Bushell really though, I reckon we can currently go about 3.58.3 ish, Back can improve 1 sec on euros, Halsall can split better as can Smith.
Britain definitely have their strongest team in years, but Bushell/Haywood still have a long way to go to catch up Soni and Jones.
ReplyDeleteWhere to put Fran Halsall is another issue. She's made it very clear that she prefers doing the Freestyle leg, so we'd need to use Jemma Lowe or Ellen Gandy who aren't at the Chinese/US/Aus level on the 100m Fly at this stage. Otherwise use Fran on the Fly but then we have the same problem with Amy Smith as she's not yet at the same level of the other countries. Still... the gap is closing and who knows where we'll be in 2 years time.
Perhaps by 2012 Rachel Kelly (16 years old, European Junior Champ this year on 100m Fly), Emma Saunders (16 years old, 4th at European Juniors on 100m Free) or Amelia Maughan (only 14 years old, 56.09 this year on 100m Free) will have come through to a level where they can strengthen the Fly and Free legs.
One other kicker to throw in... Gemma Spofforth on the Freestyle leg. Spofforth swam some incredible Freestyle relay legs for Florida at the NCAAs and whilst a lot of her strength is on the turns, we're still yet to see what she can do LC on the 100m Free. That would then free up Elizabeth Simmonds to swim the Backstroke leg.