A very human performance left James Magnussen feeling “bloody terrible” but the world 100m freestyle champion still maintained his winning momentum at the NSW swimming championships.
Magnussen notched his 14th consecutive 100m race win at Sydney Olympic Park but had to fight hard, clocking 49.02 seconds to touch out young gun Cameron McEvoy (49.44) and Tommaso D’Orsogna (49.46) on Friday night.
The 20-year-old said he never expected to set the world on fire in Sydney due to being deep into heavy training schedule.
But having become accustomed to the spectacular, Magnussen couldn’t hide his disappointment at the time which was .97 seconds slower than his win at the South Australian championships a fortnight ago and well shy of his stunning 47.49 swim in Shanghai last year.
“It’s bloody terrible, it’s not enjoyable,” Magnussen said of seeing his time.
“I hate racing when I can’t race my best so when I look up and see 49.0 it’s kind of like ‘can we do it again?’
“We’re sort of at the end of our four-week block of training so that freshness certainly isn’t there.
“Every time I go out I want to be swimming 47s and smashing races and stuff like that.
“It is disappointing but I know that’s where I am and I executed my race plan sort of OK.”
Magnussen said he was still happy with his preparations for next month’s Olympic trials in Adelaide but joked bookmakers might be lengthening his odds of $1.60 to win gold in the event at the London Olympics.
Stephanie Rice (4:42.29) was left satisfied after an encouraging swim to finish second behind Sam Hamill (4:40.21) in the women’s 400m individual medley final.
Rice was returning to competition after shoulder surgery in December, an injury that cast a cloud over her London Olympic campaign.
“It was really good to get in there and race in a race situation and feel that adrenalin again,” Rice said.
“I need that preparation before the Olympic trials.”
Controversial swimmer Nick D’Arcy marked his return from back and hip injuries to score an impressive win in the men’s 200m butterfly final.
D’Arcy clocked 1:56.90 to set the early pace in the event in the world this year.
Melanie Schlanger won the women’s 100m freestyle final in a handy 53.75 while Libby Trickett (55.54) went considerably slower than her impressive heat swim to finish seventh.
Leiston Pickett (1:07.36) took out the women’s 100m breaststroke with Leisel Jones (1:09.00) finishing a disappointing seventh.
Korean star Park Tae Hwan took out the men’s 400m freestyle final in an impressive 3:45.57 ahead of 19-year-old David McKeon (3:48.20), while Belinda Hocking (2:09.04) won the women’s 200m butterfly final and Marieke Guehrer (26.55) the 50m freestyle.
