Olympic Champion Mack Horton Banking On Long Game In Short-Course Opener In Melbourne

Mack Horton AUS, 400m Freestyle Final, 18th FINA World Swimming Championships 2019, 21 July 2019, Gwanju South Korea. Pic by Delly Carr/Swimming Australia. Pic credit requested and mandatory for free editorial usage. THANK YOU.
Mack Horton powering to the podium as the first man home with a clean record over 400m freestyle at World titles in 2019 - Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia

Olympic Champion Mack Horton banking on long game in short course opener in Melbourne; shot at what would be Horton’s first-ever Aussie s/c title

  • Australian Short-Course Championships
  • October 24-26
  • Melbourne Sports Centres – MSAC
  • Meet Info

The Hancock Prospecting Australian Short Course Swimming Championships returns to Melbourne Sports Centres – MSAC – this week, from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 October 2019.

Who will rule the pool?

Olympic champion Mack Horton may well feel like a fish out of water when he arrives at his home pool, the Melbourne Sports And Aquatic Centre on Thursday morning (Australian time) for day one of the three-day Hancock Prospecting Australian Short Course Championships.

The 23-year-old from the Melbourne Vicentre Club is one of the few big name stars of international swimming who are not on the International Swimming League tour that arrives in Budapest this weekend for round four of the multi-million dollar teams based series.

Horton and his coach Craig Jackson are playing the long game as they plot the defence of Horton’s Olympic 400m freestyle crown in Tokyo next year – leaving nothing to chance after almost missing this year’s World Championships, when he misfired at the Trials.

While many of his opponents and Australian team mates have opted into the ISL and the FINA World Cup Series, Horton is only just getting back into a training schedule he hopes will see him become only the third person in history – and the third Australian – to successfully defend the prestigious 400m freestyle Olympic crown.

Only Olympic legends, the late Murray Rose (1956 and 1960) and Ian Thorpe (2000 and 2004) have achieved the feat.

Horton and Jackson know they have to be right on the money with their preparation if they want their own slice of Olympic history.

Mack Horton AUS protests Sun Yang's CHN Gold Medal, 400m Freestyle Final, 18th FINA World Swimming Championships 2019, 21 July 2019, Gwanju South Korea. Pic by Delly Carr/Swimming Australia. Pic credit requested and mandatory for free editorial usage. THANK YOU.

Mack Horton protests Sun Yang’s Gold Medal in the 400m free at 2019 World titles in Gwanju, South Korea – Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia

The man who stood up for his beliefs in that controversial podium “stand down” at this year’s World Championships with his own protest against 2012 Olympic champion and four-time World Champion Sun Yang (CHN), will begin that build up in familiar surrounds in his home pool.

He just has to swing through the back corridor to the MSAC outdoor pool, the Commonwealth Games pool from 2006 and right next door to his regular indoor training pool.

The Big Picture – All Roads Lead To Tokyo

And for Horton the three-days will be used as a training weekend to get him back in the groove.

“We are still building up Mack’s routine and are around eight swim sessions a week as he continues his cross training, which centres around his bike work,” said Jackson, who went on to explain why his super-charge chose not to swim in the pro series.

“For Mack it is all about the big picture – Tokyo 2020 – and we did not want to rush his preparation and thought it best that he didn’t travel.

“We are comfortable with the call and this weekend will be treated as a (racing) training weekend and he will have some fun along the way. It is all about getting Mack right for next year’s Olympic Trials in Adelaide.”

Horton will again most likely concentrate on the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle – after spearheading Australia to a long-awaited world championship gold in the 4x200m freestyle and his close-up 400m freestyle and despite failing to qualify for the 800m.

But he was in fact lucky to be in Gwangju given a lifeline after missing automatic qualification in the 400 and 800m at the Australian Trials – but snatching a place in the relay squad allowing him to fill the vacant spots behind Jack McLoughlin in the individual 400 and 800m freestyle.

Busy Race Practice At A Meet With Skins & Reverse Heat Seeding

Horton will have a busy three-days of racing, starting with the 400m freestyle and followed by the 100m freestyle on Day One (Thursday); the 200 and 800m freestyle, as well as a Skins event (100, 50 and 25m) event on Friday before the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly on the final day Saturday.

Swimming Australia has brought back the Skins, first emerging on the scene in 1996 after the Atlanta Olympics and becoming one of the most popular events on the swimming calendar in years leading up to and post the Sydney Olympics – attracting some of the sport’s biggest names to Sydney.

And with Swimming Australia opting for “Reverse Heat seeding” with the fastest heats first, it sees Horton drawn in two of his six events, against Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold medallist, 100m butterfly champion from Rio, Joseph Schooling in both the 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly.

The Australian coaches committee have wanted to try “Reverse Heat seeding” for a a while and as this is a non-selection meet and a lot of swimmers are at the ISL, a good moment to try it out, it was thought.

Horton’s Shot At What Would Be A First Australian Short-Course Title

Horton has not swum a great deal of short-course and has never won an Australian Short-Course Championship title.

Thursday’s 400m freestyle will see him line up against emerging distance freestyler Josh Parrish (TSS), his closest rival.

Mack Horton AUS, 400m Freestyle Final, 18th FINA World Swimming Championships 2019, 21 July 2019, Gwanju South Korea. Pic by Delly Carr/Swimming Australia. Pic credit requested and mandatory for free editorial usage. THANK YOU.

Mack the Knife… Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia

Horton is the only swimmer entered who has a time under 3:40.00 – having clocked his personal best of 3:39.52 to win the Eindhoven World Cup meet last September in 3:39.52 – the ninth fastest time by an Australian.

They will be joined by a host of youngsters including 16-year-old Queenslanders Thomas Hauck (All Saints) and Samuel Short (Albany Creek), who will both be looking for spots in the 10-man final on the opening night.

One Olympian who revels in the short course pool is TSS’ David Morgan – the winner of 12 Australian short course titles – including an impressive unbeaten run in the last five 100m butterfly finals since 2014.

Morgan has also won the last four 50m butterfly titles and the 200m butterfly in 2016 and 2017.

Apart from the three fly events, Morgan will also line up in the 50m freestyle, which he won in 2017, as well as the 100 an d 200m individual medleys and the 50m backstroke.

But the 2016 Rio medley relay bronze medallist and four-time Fina World SC medallist from Windsor in 2014 wont have things his own way – up against Schooling in the sprint fly events and the 50m freestyle and defending champion Nic Brown, son of two-time Olympian Ian Brown (UWA-West Coast, WA) in the 200m butterfly.

A Trio of Defending Champs – Pickett, Strauch and Taylor

leiston-pickett-

Leiston Pickett; Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia Ltd.

In the women’s events only three defending champions, Leiston Pickett (Southport Olympic) 50m breaststroke; Jenna Strauch (Bond) 200m breaststroke and Laura Taylor (TSS Aquatic) 200m butterfly will step up to defend their titles.

Pickett, fresh from her opening rounds stints with the DC Tridents in the ISL and Strauch will line up in all three breaststroke events.

Taylor, who has been in strong form in the World Cups, will start a busy three-days when she lines up in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly, adding the 50 and 400m freestyle and 100 and her specialist 200m butterfly over the last two days.

Rio Olympian Kotuku Ngawati (Melbourne Vicentre) will be out to recapture the individual medley double she won in 2012 and will also line up in the 1200 and 200m freestyle.

One to watch will be 17-year-old Gabriella Peiniger (MLC Aquatic) who has had an exciting year with outstanding results at the National Age Championships, culminating in selection on the Australian Team for the World Juniors in Budapest where she won two silver medals as a relay alternate in the 4×100 and 4x200m freestyle relays.

Peiniger will also have a busy three-days, something she is getting used to, swimming the 50 and 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle and both the 100 and 200m IMs.

The Gold Coast’s University of Wisconsin graduate Jess Unicomb (Griffith University) is home from the Badgers and now training under coach Michael Bohl and has arguably the busiest program, with the backstroke specialist lining up in the 50, 100 and 200m backstroke, as well as the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

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Scott Unicomb
4 years ago

100 Fly Jessica Unicomb??

Jessica Unicomb
4 years ago
Reply to  Scott Unicomb

Scott Unicomb yea no that’s was a mis print! Wouldn’t that be a sight ?

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