Talent pool deeper than it looks, says Frost

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The man who took Ian Thorpe from learn-to-swim classes to Olympic champion and world record-breaker, believes there will soon be a resurgence in men’s swimming in Australia.

While Thorpe and Grant Hackett were the core of the Australian men’s team in Athens last year, and Hackett the leader without Thorpe at the world titles in Montreal this year, outside that pair, the male ranks have been looking extremely vulnerable.

At the worlds, the women were brilliant, winning 10 of Australia’s 13 gold medals. Just four of the 21 women failed to win a medal. The men’s team’s three golds were all won by Hackett.

But Doug Frost, who took a coaching post at the Australian Institute of Sport this year, thinks the future is not as bleak as some think, and Australians could see the next wave of local male swimmers emerge as early as the Commonwealth Games next year.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Frost said yesterday. “I think we’ll see a new bunch of guys - I don’t think they are quite up with Ian and Grant’s level - but we’ve got some people coming through who could at least fill in the gaps. Just speaking of my own squad, young Hayden Jackson is doing a hell of a job down here and so is Nick Ffrost. They are only little guys but they are doing well and I see them as ones for the future.

“I can assure you there are some very talented young men coming up through the ranks and I think it’s just a matter of time before a couple of them jump up. I’m hoping that a couple of them can jump up there and fill some gaps at the Commonwealth Games. I tell you what it will do, if it doesn’t do anything in the immediate future, it will put people on notice … In one area we’ve got two of the best swimmers in the world [Thorpe and Hackett], but in other areas we’ve got less effective athletes.

“You only have to reflect back to the Olympics in 2000. The women, with exception of about three or four athletes, we didn’t have a very strong team, but the men were good. Then in two years, the women had turned themselves around.

“It doesn’t take much - it might take a little bit more with men because they take longer to mature - but I just see some talent there, guys like Nic Spenger, he’s a real talent, and Ethan Rolff from Kingscliff, he looks good. I see kids that can do anything in say, two years, come the world championships in 2007.”

All coaches look for a Thorpe, and these days Frost is no different. He knows how special Thorpe was - and still is - but said he was sure one like him would emerge - “it’s just a matter of when”. Frost said he had no doubt Thorpe would be able to successfully return after taking a year off competitive swimming. He said the break was something that had been coming since the Sydney Games.

“He is very talented and probably mentally he needed to have that break,” he said. “He was 17 when he swam at his first Olympics and you talk about pressure, there was a lot of pressure on him, and you could see the relief when he got up and swam so well in the 400metres. It was like a huge burden was lifted off his back.

“I think by the time 2004 came around he was probably looking for a break. I don’t think it’s a problem and I think he would have been smart enough to do a little bit of work … I’ve heard he’s doing a pretty good job in training … so I think he’ll be strong when he comes back.

“He’s the best middle-distance swimmer the world has seen, and I don’t think he’s really reached his full potential in that area, but I think the way he is going is to focus more on the 100m freestyle, and he’ll have his work cut out, especially with the boys [Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling] from South Africa. The Commonwealth Games will not be easy for Ian, but it will be good to see him back.”

Mottram saves the worlds

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There were plenty of reasons why the World Athletics Championships slipped under the radar over the last two weeks. Lost among a myriad of higher-profile sports, the world’s best track and field athletes competed largely unnoticed by the sporting public in this country, who have been swept away by golden performances in the pool in Montreal and an Ashes series of unrivalled tension. Not to mention the Bledisloe Cup and the business end of the footy season in both major codes.

The timeslot wasn’t overly-friendly either. As if the athletics fanatics of this country needed to know that their sport is struggling for a profile, SBS, the champion of under-appreciated sports, pushed their timeslot back to 2:30am, and often later, to accommodate the goliath that is Australian cricket.

Even the most passionate of sports fans would have struggled to sit through 90 overs of absorbing Ashes action and then keep the eyes open for the best of the athletics from Helsinki. The Scandinavian weather wasn’t much help, with storms plaguing much of the night sessions and keeping the faithful up even later into the morning.

The action extended past the newspaper deadline here in Australia and meant that most of the news was well-dated by the time it made it into print or on TV the next day. When it did make the news, the impression was of a disappointing Australian effort.

Australian Athletics is always rated as the poorer cousin to other sports, in particular swimming. In a golden era, Australia performed as well on the track as it did in the pool, but that era has well gone. The reality is now, saying Australia had a disappointing world Aths campaign is probably equivalent to saying Ethiopia had a poor swim champs.

The world of athletics has changed dramatically in the professional era, with the US College circuit providing a never-ending breeding ground for the sprinters and field athletes an endless flow of long distance runners coming out of East and Northern Africa. The recent move by gulf states to poach African runners to ‘buy’ golden moments is at the more insidious end of the spectrum, but it is a sign of how poorly the world’s best athletes are rewarded financially if they are willing to give up the honour of representing the country of their birth for money.

Australia’s athletes aren’t rewarded with the lucrative endorsement contracts of other elite sportspeople. They participate more for love than money, and while Australia boasts world class training and medical facilities, the depth of talent isn’t there to deliver constant results. Still, Craig Mottram won bronze in Helsinki and Patrick Johnson and John Steffenson made the finals of the 200m and 400m respectively. All fine efforts.

Occasionally, someone stands up and delivers, a Cathy Freeman or Jana Pittman. From the solitude of year-round training sessions, they are catapulted into the national spotlight, in particular around Olympic time. Freeman handled that superbly, Pittman not so well. That is a challenge which much confronts Mottram, Australia’s only medallist in Helsinki, at next year’s Commonwealth Games and possibly the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Mottram’s effort to finish third in the 5000m was perhaps the biggest achievement of any Australian sportsperson in the last month, but it has been recorded as a positive blot on an otherwise disappointing world championships. While Jessicah Schipper, Leisel Jones and Grant Hackett were excellent in Montreal and McGrath and Warne were great in England, Mottram was inspirational in Helsinki.

Pulling himself off the canvas with 50m to go, he overhauled the reigning world champion to snatch bronze and finish within three metres of the gold medal. The time wasn’t flash, but the race was run to suit the African runners, who can sprint quickly at the end of their races. Mottram took them on at their own game, and came away with a medal which he treasured as much as any gold. He, as much as Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath did at Old Trafford, embodies the Australian will to succeed, but for the mean time, he’ll have to wait for his back page.

Davies ready for the hard yards

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World Championship and Olympic bronze medallist David Davies has vowed to improve before the Commonwealth Games.

The 20-year-old from Barry was beaten into 1500m freestyle third at the major championships by Australian great Grant Hackett and American Larsen Jensen.

But the man popularly christened ‘Dai Splash’ by his Welsh fans has a plan in place ahead of Melbourne 2006.

“I’ll recuperate now, but then it’s an intense training routine. I can develop strength, speed and power,” he said.

“I’ll be putting in 50-55 miles a week, training intensely for 27 hours, to get me into the right shape.

“It’s a hard slog, especially on the dark winter mornings, but if I don’t do it I know I’ll miss out.”

The City of Cardiff man was pleased with his performance in the World Championships in Montreal last month to prove that his Olympic medal was no fluke.

“It’s always harder to do something again and I was delighted to re-establish myself,” Davies told BBC Sport Wales.

“The final went well and I swam as my coach asked, but unfortunately I couldn’t quite get the silver.

“Now the aim is to get the preparation right for Melbourne and move on.”

He acknowledges that his intense rivalry with Jensen and Hackett will fuel him through the long months of training.

“It’s a hectic battle that keeps everyone on their toes,” said the Welshman.

“We’re helping each other to improve, but hopefully next time I can get the better end of it.”

If Jensen is firmly in his sights, Davies acknowledges that at the moment Hackett - undefeated in the event for eight years - is a class apart.

“Hackett is a world-class athlete who I have a lot of respect for,” enthused Davies. “It’s a big ask to challenge him.

“He was five seconds ahead of me in Montreal, but that’s not bad in a 15-minute race.

“It can be made up and I’ll chip away at him, but the trouble is he’ll be trying to improve as well.”

If targeting Hackett is one of the hardest jobs in sport, Davies has a dream in mind to keep himself motivated.

“Getting a gold medal swimming for Wales and beating Hackett in front of his home Australian crowd - that would be the ultimate for me,” mused the youngster.

He may just have the talent and commitment to make his dream a reality.

Coaches take steps to resuscitate men’s team

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REINFORCEMENTS are arriving for the struggling men’s team as it starts to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next March.

National head coach Alan Thompson was encouraged to see the return of Olympic medallists Ashley Callus, Justin Norris and Geoff Huegill to competition after extended breaks, and the arrival of newcomers like 50m freestyle winner Matt Targett at the national short course championships in Melbourne this week.

But that does not mean he is dismissing the poor performance of the men at the world championships in Montreal.

Thompson and national youth coach Leigh Nugent have conducted an examination of the men’s team this week and have identified several factors which contributed to such a disappointing outcome in Montreal. Team captain Grant Hackett was the only individual medallist there in an Olympic event.

“I believe that no one goes away to swim poorly and, for whatever reasons, some of those guys did,” Thompson said.

“Some of the guys prepared poorly and, in hindsight, some of the coaches thought their athletes didn’t prepare as well as they should have.”

Thompson said some of the men’s coaching programs have focused too much on technique, moving from the hard fitness work required. “I think there are some guys who just expected it to happen, and it doesn’t just happen,” he said.

Thompson believes Callus, 26, will take a senior role, now that he has shrugged off the ill-health which has compromised his performance in the past two years.

Thompson also revealed that he hoped to take the entire Australian team to Beijing for a two-day familiarisation tour after the world short course championships in Shanghai next April.

Australian Swimming is trying to find financial support for the venture, but Thompson said he believed the trip would inspire those aiming for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Back off, says Hackett, men’s team is rebuilding

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Australian swimming team captain Grant Hackett has hit back at criticism by a former team coach Brian Sutton published in a newspaper yesterday that the men’s team had underperformed at the recent world championships because some members were more concerned about their image and sponsorship options.

Hackett was the only male swimmer to win an individual event in Montreal, collecting gold in the 400-, 800- and 1500-metres freestyle and with head coach Alan Thompson has acknowledged the inadequacies within the men’s team. But yesterday, Hackett said overcritical comments were not helpful to a team that was going through a “rebuilding phase”.

“I think those sort of comments are probably better left at the back of a barbecue and not be in newspapers,” Hackett told Channel Seven’s Sportsworld yesterday. “I don’t think they’re called for.

“If he has an opinion like that and he wants to be that critical, maybe he should keep them to himself. Personally, I don’t think it’s like that at all.”

Hackett said people’s expectations of the men’s team - which is measured against the powerful American team that is underpinned by a strong collegiate system - had been distorted by the success on the back of superstars Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim and himself during the past decade.

Hackett said people tended to forget Australia had been “punching outside its weight” for some time.

“We’re just in a rebuilding phase,” he said. “There’s been a lot of changes and a lot of new faces … Sure the men’s team is not up to scratch … and I totally agree with that, but to be as harsh as to say something like that and have that sort of generalisation, that’s uncalled for.”

But former Australian head coach Don Talbot yesterday backed Sutton’s stance and laid the blame for Australia’s struggling male swimming ranks on senior team members and coaches who were too willing to use excuses for poor performances. Talbot singled out breaststroker Jim Piper and former world champions Klim and Matt Welsh for accepting below-par results.

“I believe that our role models … are not good for our young men who are coming up,” Talbot said.

“There seem to be people advocating you don’t have to perform well [but] just make a final and your corporate sponsors will stand by you … people are becoming satisfied because they made a semi-final, for crying out loud. What’s that? We’ve deteriorated in my opinion to where track and field is.”

Hackett setting a torrid pace

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IRVINE – The wake-up call came at 4 a.m.

So after barely four hours of sleep, Grant Hackett crawled out of bed in Montreal, packed his three gold medals from the 11th FINA World Swimming Championships and raced off to catch a flight across North America.

So much for resting on your laurels.

“It’s been such a crazy time,” the Australian said, standing on the Woollett Aquatic Complex pool deck 16 hours later. “Between everything I really haven’t had time to sit back and think about it (the World Championships), to reflect on it. I’ve really been thinking about the job I have to do.”

Next on his to-do list would be this afternoon’s Duel in the Pool, the showdown between Australia and the U.S., swimming’s two superpowers, and a victory lap for Hackett and one of the most dominant weeks in the sport’s history.

If what he did over the course of eight days in Montreal wasn’t any clearer to Hackett in the California sun than it was in the darkness of Quebec, it has sunk in for the rest of his sport.

At a World Championships that U.S. men’s coach Dave Salo called “historic,” Hackett stole the show, padding a résumé that might already be unmatched by any other distance swimmer. He became the first man to sweep the 400, 800 and 1,500-meter freestyles at a single World Championships and the first to win a single event (the 1,500) at four consecutive World Championships.

In the process, the 25-year-old finally swam out of the long shadow cast by countryman Ian Thorpe. Monday morning, three leading Australian newspapers all had the same headline: “Ian Who?”

The man the Aussies call Captain Fantastic smashed Thorpe’s highly regarded 2001 world 800 record in Montreal, and his three golds gave him eight individual World titles for his career, one more than Thorpe, who is taking the year off.

Hackett has a record 17 World Championships medals, four more than the previous mark shared by Thorpe, Germany’s Michael Gross and Jenny Thompson of the U.S.

“What we saw last week was a sensational athlete,” Australia coach Alan Thompson said.

Montreal might also have signaled a turning point for Hackett, who has battled respiratory problems most of his career.

“For the first time he came to a major international competition and he wasn’t sick,” Salo said. “And he really stepped up. It was a lot of fun. It was exciting.”

When Hackett was 14 he stayed home “sick” from school to watch on television as Australia distance superstar Kieren Perkins swam at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. In the midst of Perkins’ world record 1,500, Hackett turned to his mother.

“I’m going to break that world record one day,” Hackett recalled saying.

“I said it without realizing what it meant or what it would take to get that record,” Hackett continued.

That day in 1994 Hackett could not have imagined how difficult it would be to get to the top. He won his first Olympic 1,500 in 2000 despite battling glandular fever. His defense in Athens was even more impressive as he competed with a left lung that was 25 percent collapsed because of a respiratory infection.

Hackett initially feared the infection had caused permanent damage. Montreal erased those concerns.

Healthy for the first time in years, Hackett said he believes he is just now entering his prime years. He talks of lowering his 1,500 world record of 14 minutes, 34.56 seconds to sub-14:30. No else has gone under 14:41.

“If you look at rowing or track and field, (cycling) or the marathon, the top men are reaching their peak between 28 and 32,” Hackett said. “And the financial gains now allow people to stay in swimming longer. So you don’t have to get into the real world and get a real job.”

Hackett and team out to dent US

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Grant Hackett and his Australian swim team will be out to make “a few dints” when they go head-to-head with the Michael Phelps-led Americans at the Duel in the Pool meet in southern California.

It’s the US vs Australia.

The rest of the world was not invited.

The US swim squad was crowned number one after dominating last week’s world championships in Montreal with a record 32 medals, including 15 gold.

Australia was not far behind with 22 medals, 13 gold, so a dominating performance by the Australians will dampen America’s celebrations.

“We are hoping to put a few dints in them,” Australia’s head coach, Alan Thompson, told AAP.

The Duel in the Pool will create numerous exciting match-ups.

The event is a sellout and will feature the likes of Hackett going head-to-head against Phelps in the 200m freestyle and Leisel Jones out to prove her defeat of Americans Tara Kirk and new world record holder Jessica Hardy in the 100m breaststroke last week in Montreal was not a fluke.

Who races who, however, is top secret with both countries guarding their teams.

They do not have to reveal the names of what swimmers will be competing in what events and even after they do, coaches can switch a swimmer at the last second, turning the event into a human chess game.

The rules of the event restrict any swimmer from racing in more than four events, including relays. Each country can enter three swimmers in a race. Also, adding to the pressure for team officials is there is little break between events.

The winner of each race receives five points for their country, four for second, two for third and one for fourth.

“You have to make sure you choose wisely,” Thompson said of strategies.

“It’s an interesting scenario.”

The relays will be crucial as the winning team receives seven points.

Phelps, after his disastrous performance in the 400m freestyle in Montreal, will likely bypass the event, but will be favourite for the 200m free.

Thompson said Hackett, the star of the Australian team, will have no trouble backing up after his three gold medals in the 400m, 800m and 1,500m free events in Montreal.

The Duel in the Pool, however, will only feature the 400m free.

Thompson virtually dismissed America’s chances of challenging Hackett in the 400m free.

“The 400m free isn’t going to worry us much,” Thompson said.

The Duel in the Pool will be staged at the 2,600 seat outdoor Woollett Aquatic Centre at Irvine, south of Los Angeles.

Don’t hurry back, Thorpey

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GRANT Hackett and the all-conquering women have led Australia to its greatest medal haul at the world championships.

Australia won three gold medals on the final day of competition to finish with 22 medals — 13 gold, five silver and four bronze.

The haul surpassed Australia’s previous best of 13 gold, three silver and three bronze at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

But Australia’s performance was not enough to beat the United States, which topped the medal tally with 15 gold medals.

Team captain Hackett, who won three golds, said the result was a great achievement for Australia without Ian Thorpe.

“It’s great for the team to step out of the shadow of someone like Ian and still be able to come here and prove that it’s not a one-man team,” Hackett said.

“Ian always has great results and we certainly need him and want him back, but it proves that it’s just not him that’s producing great results.

“We thought this could be a bit of a low time for us, but we’ve turned that around and had great results.”

But the story of the championships for Australia was the same as last year’s Olympics: the dominance of the women and, save for Hackett, the lacklustre performances of the men.

Of Australia’s 13 gold medals in Montreal, 10 were won by women.

Aside from Hackett’s hardware, the only other medals to come from the men were Matt Welsh’s silver in the 50m backstroke and bronze in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relays.

But in a more alarming indication of the health of the men’s team, apart from Hackett, Nic Sprenger (200m freestyle) and Jim Piper (200m breaststroke) were the only swimmers to qualify for finals in Olympic events.

Australian head coach Alan Thompson was pleased with the overall result, but admitted to concerns about the state of the men’s team.

“You can be happy, but certainly not satisfied in the results. That’s the message I have for the team,” Thompson said.

“There has been some great results, but there are still some areas that we need to improve on.

“The performance of the men’s team is not so great, notwithstanding the excellent performances of Grant Hackett.

“We’ve got some things that we need to do to really bolster that men’s team.”

Thompson lauded the performances of the women, highlighted by Leisel Jones’ breakthrough wins in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and the arrival of Jessicah Schipper as a world champion butterflyer.

He singled out the progress of 18-year-old Schipper, who won gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 200m butterfly, swimming under the world record.

“She has made some massive gains. Her performances were just phenomenal,” Thompson said.

The Australian team will aim to cap off its world championship success at the Duel in the Pool against the US in Irvine, California, on Wednesday.

Swim prince conquers all to become king

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HE is the greatest medal winner in world championship history and the first swimmer to win the same event four times at the world titles.

But distance supremo Grant Hackett is confident his best is still ahead of him after he continued his nine-year dominance in the 1500m freestyle at the world championships yesterday.

Unbeaten in the event since 1996, Hackett added a record fourth 1500m title to his name to become the first swimmer to win the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle at a world championships.

The 25-year-old produced the fourth fastest time in history for his pet event to win in 14min 42.58sec, eight seconds outside the world record he set in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2001.

The win completed a stellar world championships for the dual Olympic 1500m gold medallist, who was named the male swimmer of the meeting for his performances.

Hackett leaves Montreal with gold in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle, silver in the 200m freestyle, bronze in the 4×200m freestyle relay and a world record in the 800m.

The Gold Coast swimmer’s haul took his overall world championship medal tally to a record 17, three more than the previous benchmark held by Ian Thorpe, American Jenny Thompson and German Michael Gross.

Hackett said he was humbled to achieve what he had in Montreal, but believed there were still better performances ahead of him.

“I guess it’s one of my best,” Hackett said.

“It’s an awesome feeling to be able to achieve something like that (four 1500m titles) and be the first person in history to do it.”

While long-time rival Thorpe took a sabbatical from international competition this year, Hackett has enjoyed the spotlight and the accolades in Montreal.

The Australian team captain was thrilled with the recognition he had received.

“Getting swimmer of the meet and all that sort of stuff . . . it’s just an honour to have something like that,” Hackett said.

World’s best swimmer awaits Thorpe challenge

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Grant Hackett is expecting to take on a freshly motivated Ian Thorpe after his record-breaking world championship feats confirmed him as the world’s best swimmer of 2005.

The endurance maestro was named swimmer of the meet after leading Australia to its best performance at a world titles with 13 gold, five silver and four bronze medals in Montreal.

The Australian captain’s crushing victory in the 1500m (yesterday morning, Canberra time) meant Australia just eclipsed its previous best effort (13-3-3) of 2001 in Fukuoka, Japan.

The modest Hackett has appreciated the limelight he’s received, and long deserved, in the absence of long-time rival Thorpe, Australia’s most successful Olympian.

“Yeah certainly getting swimmer of the meet and all that sort of stuff, and you still have the [Michael] Phelpses, the [Michael] Crockers and [Aaron] Peirsols, and all those great competitors and it is just honour to have something like that,” Hackett said.

“I work very hard and pick the tough events or rather they pick me more so, and it is nice to come away and be appreciated.”

Hackett has always remained patient when comparisons are made with Thorpe, despite his sterling career being upstaged since being mowed down by the Sydneysider in the 400m at the 1998 world titles in Perth.

The two-time Olympic 1500m champion comes away from the world titles as the first man to win the 400m, 800m and 1500m treble and he also collected silver in the 200m and bronze in the 4×200m relay - and Thorpe’s world record in the 800m - during his marathon 6.2km program of racing at the Parc Jean-Drapeau pool.

He expects Thorpe to be itching to get back into competition when he returns for next year’s Commonwealth Games after watching Australia achieve its best medal haul at a world-class meet from his couch in Sydney.

“I am sure he is at home feeling motivated by watching this, and wanting to step up again,” Hackett said. “I am looking forward to the challenge of swimming against him.”

Thorpe was swimmer of the meet in Fukuoka in 2001 and American superstar Michael Phelps claimed the title two years later at the Barcelona worlds.

This time it was Hackett’s turn, even if Thorpe is sitting out the meet while Phelps’s experimentation with his program backfired in Montreal.

National head coach Alan Thompson said Hackett richly deserved his moment in the spotlight.

“Had he been in a different era, he would have been the one, and this time he has been able to stand on the stage in his own and get the accolades he deserves,” Thompson said.