California Aquatics post-graduate swimmer Natalie Coughlin has scratched from the second day of the 2014 Santa Clara Grand Prix. The scratch comes after a long 10-day trip to Europe for the Mare Nostrum that saw her return to California at the beginning of this week.
See day 2 prelims heat sheets here.
She swam fairly well at her three meet European swing along with other members of the Cal collegiate and post-graduate programs, hovering right around a 54-high to 55-low throughout the week. Perhaps that was enough racing for her to get back and work on adjustments, but with only a short drive from Berkeley to Santa Clara, it’s still a bit surprising that she’d skip the 100 free on Friday.
All of her Cal teammates are still present-and-accounted for, however. Especially those who are working to sneak in a 3rd Grand Prix meet to hit the requirements of the USA Swimming stipend program.
There were a few other noteworthy scratches on the second day of the meet. In the women’s 200 breaststroke, Jamaican Alia Atkinson is a scratch. Stanford’s Katie Olsen, who was a top-10 seed and a potential finalist, is also a scratch, though she pulled out before the last set of psych sheets was released on Wednesday.
And finally, Cal’s Sophia Batchelor, a New Zealander, has scratched the women’s 100 fly. She was to be the 2nd seed in that race behind Felicia Lee. Batchelor has been left off of New Zealand’s roster for the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pac Championships after being on the Worlds roster (and finishing 11th in the 50 fly) in 2013.
A reminder, prelims start at 9AM Pacific Time, and a full preview with all of the links you need to follow the meet can be found here.
Mare Nostrum was 3 meets….she really doesn’t need to a 4th meet in 2 weeks. Time for some R&R with her husband and chickens
Resting up for her 52 high at the end of the summer…working on the little things…
Natalie’s 4 x 100 free relay split at last year’s World Championships was awesome, so I hope that will give her confidence moving forward that she can still go under 53 at this stage in her career!
I hope she’s not injured! Are there any rumors circulating about why she scratched? Has she scratched from the entire meet?
If am not wrong, she is scratching the whole meet. Fatigued because of Mare Norstrum and needed time to recover. She mentioned on twitter.
Thanks, I’m not on Twitter! I’m glad to hear it’s just fatigue. She seems to be amazingly attuned to her body. As you get older, racing when you feel too tired has the potential for causing injury, so I guess that’s smart.