Five-times Olympic champion Ian Thorpe’s latest setback in his bid to swim at this year’s London Games was not as terrible as it first appeared, his coach said yesterday.
Australian head coach Leigh Nugent said there were mitigating factors to Thorpe’s pedestrian time in a 100m freestyle race in Zurich last week.
Thorpe, dubbed “Thorpedo,” clocked 52.28 seconds, a time unlikely to secure him even a relay berth at the March 15-22 Australian trials.
Photo: EPA
After meeting Swimming Australia’s performance science manager Bernard Savage, Nugent said Thorpe had not been shaken by his latest poor performance.
“Bernard Savage was there and he got the impression from Ian that he didn’t really want to swim there,” Nugent said.
“In the 100 his goggles came off and that did him in a bit psychologically,” he added.
Thorpe swam three minutes and 59.48 seconds for the 400m in Zurich, in his last outing before the Olympic trials.
“In the 400 he never raced for performance. He raced it more as a cruising swim and he felt pretty good about that,” Nugent said. “When we’re not there and we’re not privy to strategies, we often read the wrong things into the result.”
“If you had have asked me last Sunday, I would have gone: ‘Oh, it’s terrible.’ Bernard told me he was in pretty good shape and appears to be swimming very well and he seemed very good psychologically,” Nugent added.
The 29-year-old Thorpe has failed to impress since his comeback to competitive swimming last November, disappointing at meets across Asia after returning from a five-year absence.
Nugent believes Thorpe’s best hope of qualifying for his third Olympics in London is the 200m, a distance at which he held the world record for six years from 2001.
He also believes Thorpe might struggle to make the individual competition, given Australia’s depth in talent.
“Ian has been such an outstanding athlete, it probably doesn’t matter what I think,” Nugent said, refusing to write Thorpe off.
“The guy has the capability to do the unexpected. I wouldn’t rule him out of anything. His greatest odds are to make the relay, but as an individual, who knows?” he said.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
Sergio Ramos on Tuesday outfoxed two Inter players and artfully headed home the first goal for Monterrey at the FIFA Club World Cup. The 39-year-old Ramos slipped through the penalty area for the score just as he did for so many years in the shirts of Real Madrid and Spain’s national team, with whom he combined smarts, timing and physicality. Ramos’ clever goal and his overall defensive play at the Rose Bowl were major factors in Monterrey’s impressive 1-1 draw against the UEFA Champions League finalists in the clubs’ first match of the tournament. “There is always a joy to contribute to the
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
RSS