Leigh Nugent believes Ian Thorpe has a chance to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games

Leigh Nugent believes Ian Thorpe has a chance to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games

Despite of Ian Thorpe’s dwindling performances in his recent hit outs, Australian Swimming Head Coach, Leigh Nugent has altered his previous statement and said that Thorpe still has a very good chance of making his way into the Australian team for the 2012
London Olympics.

The 29-year-old Thorpe, who posted a 52.28 seconds effort in the 100m freestyle at the 2012 Zurich International Meet, last February, has just twelve days left as the Australian Selection Trials for the 2012 London Olympic Games are starting from March 15
in Adelaide.

Thorpe is the five-time Olympic champion. He won gold medals of 400m freestyle, 4*100m freestyle, and 4*200m freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games while captured two silver medals in the events of 200m freestyle and 4*100m medley relay at the same Olympics.

Later, he clinched gold medals of the 200m and 400m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He also pocketed a silver medal in the 4*200m freestyle and secured a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle at the Athens Olympics.

Thorpe retired from aggressive swimming in 2006 but returned to his sport after five years of retirement in February 2011. Since his comeback, Thorpe has been preparing hard under the guidance of his coach, Gennadi Touretski, to confirm his spot in the Australian
team to London.

The Australian comeback king failed to reach the podium in the 100m freestyle at Zurich meet but won gold medal of the 400m discipline. After his pedestrian 100m swim, many expressed concerns that Thorpe’s sluggish swim just before the Olympic trials would
be detrimental for his road to London.

Nugent himself was disappointed with Thorpe’s performance, but now he stressed that he still expects that Thorpe can earn his way into the Australian squad. He told that Thorpe’s goggles came off in the 100m event and he was not interested in participating
at the Zurich competition.

Furthermore, Nugent’s recent statement has aroused hopes of Thorpe’s supporters and they are eager to see the performance of their all-time favourite at the forthcoming trials in Adelaide.

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Posted by Mursil Mehmood Butt on Mar 3 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry