Once retired Australian distance swimming great, Grant Hackett, is making the first step towards his return to elite competitive swimming, as he will be racing at the Medal Shots Queensland Long Course Qualifying meet taking place at the Brisbane Aquatic Center on March 14-15, 2015.
Representing the Miami Swim Club, Hackett is listed with entries in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyles, where his seed times appear as 51.00, 1:50.50 and 3:56.00, respectively. No doubt contrived times, as Hackett has yet to officially race since acknowledging his comeback efforts. He was originally scheduled to race in time trials at the Miami Super Challenge this past January, but pulled out of the event due to illness.
Hackett’s self-described goal is to obtain the minimum qualifying times to then race at the 2015 Australian Long Course Championships set for April in Sydney. The qualifying times are as follows for his events:
100m freestyle – 52.50
200m freestyle – 1:55.80
400m freestyle – 4:07.00
Medal Shots Queensland Long Course Qualifying Meet Information Page
Entry Lists
The masters WR for 35-39yrs are
200 free: 1:52.84
400free: 4:05.91
He should smash the 400 free, unshaved and untapered. The 200free is a little stiffer.
I’m sticking with my predictions. The estimated(contrived) times are a little faster, particularly the 200free, but racing speed is the hardest thing to “switch on”. The training speed comes back with the hard yards, but Ian Thorpe really strugled to translate training speed into racing speed after his four year lay-off. I will be super impressed if he can go faster that my prediction for his first swim.
200m free: 1:52.9
400 free: 3:58.0
Wow, wish him well.