South Africa’s top women’s swimmer, Karin Prinsloo, has announced she will forego the 2015 World Swimming Championships in Kazan and instead focus all of her training energy on qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Over the past year, Prinsloo has suffered from tonsillitis, as well a back injury, which led to far less mileage in the pool than the 25-year-old thought would be under her belt by this time of year. The interruptions in training were reflected in Prinsloo’s inability to earn a Worlds-qualifying time at this past month’s South African trials.
“It would have been nice to compete at the World Championships, but because of a back injury and having my tonsils removed as well I missed out on many hours of quality training. I considered competing at the Mare Nostrum Series in Monaco in an effort to qualify for Worlds, but then decided against it,” Prinsloo said.
Bypassing the Mare Nostrum events scheduled for June, Prinsloo is aiming for the All African Games in September. She will be focusing her training on the three events in which she had swum faster than the Olympic-qualifying standards in 2014; the 200m and 400m freestyles, as well as the 200m backstroke.
“I think it is the right thing for now, because I need the training and worlds are around the corner, racing at Mare Nostrum would not have beneficial.” She continued that, “I have started to do some gym training this week to strengthen my body. It is the first time in 18 months that I am back in the gym. I would not have been able to do so if I were going to compete at the World Championships.” (The Citizen).