Ian Thorpe preparing hard to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games
Friday, March 2nd, 2012 4:36:55 by Mursil Mehmood Butt
Ian Thorpe preparing hard to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games
The Australian comeback king, Ian Thorpe is preparing hard to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games as he made a comeback to competitive sport after six years of retirement.
The 29-year-old Thorpe retired from aggressive swimming in 2006 but after five years of retirement, announced his return to his beloved sport in February last year.
Thorpe, who is the champion of 200m and 400m freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and 2004 Athens Olympic Games, has been struggling hard to achieve his 2012 London Qualification dream.
Thorpe participated in his first Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA) organised event in November 2011, but failed to grab the podium. He competed at the last three stops of seven-stage 2011 FINA Swimming World Cup Series, where he managed
to qualify in the final rounds of his some races, but failed to materialise on the medal rostrum.
Recently, Thorpe posted a sluggish 52.28 seconds effort at the 2012 Zurich International Meet, which has alarmed his followers. His pedestrian 100m pace just three weeks before the Australian Selection Trials for the London Games, has eased his potential
opponents.
On the other hand, Australian star, Grant Hackett advised Thorpe to shift his focus from the 100m event to the 200m freestyle, as he believes Thorpe has a good chance of making his spot in the Australian 4*200m freestyle relay team. Hackett expressed that
Swimming Australian normally selects top six finishers of the 200m event for the relay team and relatively, there is not that tough competition in the 200m freestyle.
Nevertheless, the Australian comeback king has turned down all suggestions and he is focused to compete in the 100m freestyle at the next month’s Olympic trials, starting on March 15.
Thorpe is training hard with his coach Gennadi Touretski and has expressed that he will try his level best to make his way into the 4*100m freestyle team. Furthermore, the Australian trials is an eight-day event and Thorpe will face tough competition from
the current world champion, James Magnussen and the former Australian champion, Eamon Sullivan at the forthcoming trials.
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Posted by Mursil Mehmood Butt
on Mar 2 2012. Filed under Sports.
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