Anticipation raged last week when it was announced that Grant Hackett would take on his first meet-style racing on the Gold Coast at the Miami Super Challenge in time trials swims as he continues his comeback bid to competitive swimming.
This weekend, however, will go down as a false start, as Hackett wound up withdrawing from the time trials.
According to a Tweet from the meet’s hosts the Miami Swimming Club, “Grant was there to support our meet but he did not race.”
Nicole Jeffery, a journalist with the Australian, elaborated that he pulled out of the time trial “due to illness,” and will race again in March.
Hackett, who is on the short list for greatest swimmers in history, re-entered the drug testing pool late last year in order to be eligible to compete at the Australian World Championship Trials in April. He has a total of 17 World Championship medals and 7 Olympic medals on his resume and is the World Record holder in the 800 scm free and the 1500 scm free.
Wow, somethings never change. i.e. sickness at sydney, athens, etc
I understand the interest in these comeback stories, but this one stumps me. GH is a distance swimming great, but at 36, this is not a comeback story, it is a walk down memory lane that will result in very disappointing outcomes and very slow times. If he had done the comeback in Masters format, like Dara Torres did to start with, we would be cheering him. Doing it this way will just bring out disappointment for his army of fans, me included. The disappointment has started already. Very sad.
That dude from Italy is pretty fast. What did he go at SCM Worlds in the 1500?
Gregorio Paltrinieri went 14:16.10 it was amazing! I belive he could break it if he paces himself different and a lot of work on his underwaters
Even if the big guys did swim SCM, Sun Yang is the only person swimming since it was set that could touch 14:10.
Hackett is no longer the world record holder in the 1500 LC, Sun Yang now holds the honours.
Braden probably meant the 1500 SC, in which he is still the WR holder from 2001 (!!!) Oldest WR I think
Both were up there at the time and I think he accidentally edited the wrong one out. But you’re right! It is the oldest on the books – I guess the big guys don’t swim many tapered short course meets.