Leigh Nugent still confident that Ian Thorpe will come strong for the Australian Selection Trials

Leigh Nugent still confident that Ian Thorpe will come strong for the Australian Selection Trials

Australian Swimming Head Coach, Leigh Nugent is still confident that the comeback king, Ian Thorpe will come strong at the upcoming Australian Selection Trials for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Nugent, who has been on the side of Thorpe since his comeback, has just claimed that he saw Thorpe’s training and he is hopeful that he will bring competition to his challengers at the forthcoming Olympic Trials in Adelaide.

The Australian coach stayed in Perth to observe the training of the 29-year-old Thorpe, who has been training under the supervision of Gennadi Touretski, who is the coach of his former competitor, Alexander Popov.

After noticing Thorpe’s training and his pace, Nugent expressed firm belief in Thorpe’s ability to excel at the upcoming trials in Adelaide.

Thorpe, who is the five-time Olympic champion, stayed away from competitive swimming for almost five years. He returned to his favourite spot in February 2011 while many stressed that Thorpe should have made his comeback a little sooner as this would have
helped him a lot in strengthening his position in Australian squad.

Nevertheless, the Australian swimmer has ignored all criticisms on his comeback and has been struggling hard to achieve his London qualification dream. Thorpe has participated in many competitions after his comeback but he failed to secure the podium in
100m freestyle at any event.

His recent sluggish swim at the Zurich International Meet, where Thorpe posted 52.28 seconds for the 100m freestyle, had upset his fans. Nevertheless, Nugent’s utter confidence in Thorpe has ignited hopes of Thorpe’s supporters, who are eager to see him
dominate the 100m freestyle.

Undoubtedly, Thorpe will face tough competition from the current world champion, James Magnussen and the former world champion, Eamon Sullivan, who will not be ready to allow Thorpe take the lead.

Thorpe would have to secure a top six finish in the 100m freestyle if he wants to confirm his place in the Australian 4*100m freestyle relay team. With his current form, the goal seemed unachievable but ruling out the possibility of Thorpe’s qualification
would not be a wise decision.

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Posted by Mursil Mehmood Butt on Mar 7 2012. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry