Thorpe opts out of world titles

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THE Australian team is braced for life without its most reliable gold medal-winner Ian Thorpe - at least for this year.

Thorpe’s coach Tracey Menzies finally confirmed what was becoming quite obvious - the Thorpedo will skip this year’s world championships in Montreal.

“Ian won’t be standing up to race at the world titles, which is going to be hard for the Australian team and hard for the rest of his team-mates, but it’s something he needs to do in preparation for Beijing (the 2008 Olympics),” Menzies told the ABC’s Australian Story program.

New national head coach Alan Thompson conceded the team would have to moderate its expectations for the world titles as a consequence of Thorpe’s absence.

“If Ian is not in our team it probably means there’s a couple of medals we might not win,” Thompson said.

“Even with Grant Hackett there, he can pick up the slack in some areas, but not everywhere.”

Hackett would become the obvious favourite to win his first 400m freestyle world title, having finished second behind Thorpe at the last two world championships and the Athens Olympics.

However, Hackett has already declared that he will not contest the 200m freestyle this year, despite being a former world record-holder in that event. He intends to concentrate his efforts on the 400m- 800m-1500m treble and the 4×200m freestyle relay.

That will mean Australia will have two new representatives in the 200m. The contenders include Queensland’s Nick Sprenger, who finished third behind Thorpe and Hackett in that event at the Olympic trials, Perth’s Antony Matkovich and possibly former world champion Michael Klim, who has shown some interest in a return to the event.

There will also be vacancies in the 100m freestyle with Olympic representatives Thorpe and former world short-course champion Ashley Callus both unavailable this year.

That will certainly give Klim, the former world record-holder, a chance to re-establish himself in the 100m freestyle after his four-year battle with back, ankle and shoulder injuries.

Australia’s men’s relay team struggled at last year’s Olympics, even with the world’s best anchorman to bring them home. The men’s team won only one Olympic relay medal, silver in the 4×200m freestyle.

Without Thorpe even that achievement may be beyond reach.

To some extent the reliable presence of multiple Olympic gold medallists Thorpe and Hackett has masked the malaise that has begun to afflict the national men’s team in the past two years.

However, Thompson said Thorpe’s absence would give the team an opportunity to improve the depth of talent available to the 4×100m and 4×200m freestyle relays by accelerating the progress of the second-tier swimmers.

He said taking a step back this year could assist the relays to leap forward next year, when Thorpe plans to return to the team for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Ultimately, Thompson hopes that the Australian team will be stronger in Beijing for exposing its weaknesses this year.