ADELAIDE: Reigning world champion James Magnussen produced the year’s fastest time to win the men’s 100-meters freestyle at Australia’s world championship trials in Adelaide yesterday.
The London Olympic silver medallist, 22, led in the early stages and after turning in 22.80sec powered home to win in 47.53sec, the same time in which he won silver at last year’s Olympics.
Magnussen finished clear of Cameron McEvoy (48.07), who swam a personal best and will swim in the 100m and 200m freestyle events at the Barcelona world titles in July.
Magnussen eclipsed Russia’s Vladimir Morozov (47.93) with a best time in the sprint this year.
He is looking for redemption at this year’s worlds after missing out on the London Olympic 100m freestyle title by just one-hundredth of a second behind American Nathan Adrian.
“It was good tonight to be under a bit of pressure from the other guys,” Magnussen said. “It was fairly good execution under pressure so I think it gives me a good indication of where I am at.
“I think it’s good to be back here after having some time off after the Olympics. I feel like I probably could have gone quicker at some stage this week, but I just wasn’t feeling 100 percent right tonight.”
Magnussen was among six Australian swimmers who were fined and handed deferred suspensions earlier this month after admitting taking banned sleeping pills and playing pranks at a pre-London Olympics training camp last year.
The six-man 4x100m freestyle relay squad’s sanctions came at a time of administrative and team upheaval in the sport in Australia in the wake of a poor showing at the London Games.
London Olympian Daniel Tranter successfully defended his national title in the men’s 200m Individual Medley and set a new personal best of 1:57.55 in the process.
Tranter will be joined in the event in Barcelona by 2011 world championship finalist Kenneth To (1:58.72).
Madeline Groves, 17, won her first national title with a superb final 50 meters to win the 200m butterfly final in 2:09.39 from London Olympian Samantha Hamill (2:10.35).
Turkey enlists Michael Phelps’ coach
In Ankara, Turkey, Turkey has signed Michael Phelps’ coach as a consultant on their swimming program for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Games that Istanbul hope to host.
Bob Bowman, who guided Phelps to a record 18 golds and 22 medals overall at the Olympics, will help select swimmers and advise the Turkish Swimming Federation on strategies to develop competitors, Turkey’s Youth and Sports Ministry said on Tuesday.
The appointment is part of a Turkish policy to develop athletes in swimming and other major Olympic events. It came after Turkish mobile phone company Turkcell agreed to sponsor swimming and athletics.
Bowman’s first task will be to select swimmers with potential among some 200,000 youths, a ministry official said.
No Turkish swimmer has won an Olympic medal.
