By Stephen J. Thomas<\/p>\n
SYDNEY, Australia, May 26. TWO of Australia\u2019s top Olympic medal prospects — the three-time Olympian Petria Thomas and Brooke Hanson — have dropped individual swims in Athens to give themselves more time for recovery between events. <\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Thomas was in sensational form at the Aussie Trials, setting PRs in the butterfly treble and 100-200 freestyle and looked like heading down the same road as former teammate Susie O\u2019Neill at the Sydney Games — being in a position to swim the 200 free and fly finals on consecutive days. <\/p>\n
Brooke Hanson, selected on her first Olympic team at the age of 26, was scheduled to swim the 100-200 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley after upsetting world record-holder Leisel Jones in the 100 breast and 200 IM World Champs silver medalist Alice Mills in the Olympic trials. <\/p>\n
National head coach Leigh Nugent has confirmed that Thomas will drop the individual swim in the wide-open 200 free to concentrate on her pet event, the 200 fly (No.1 ranked in 2004 with a 2:06.01 at the Trials. Thomas took the silver in this event behind O\u2019Neill and the bronze again behind the then world record-holder O\u2019Neill and upset winner Misty Hyman. <\/p>\n
The Olympic program has the semifinals of the 200 free just two races before the fly final. Thomas would dearly love to take gold in the 200 fly to end a career that has seen her battle to recover from shoulder reconstructions on three occasions. Thomas will also swim the 100 fly and play a major role in the very strong freestyle and medley relays. <\/p>\n
Thomas has been replaced in the 200 freestyle by Barcelona finalist Elka Graham, who finished third in the trials in 1:58.70 (PR 1:58.54).<\/p>\n
Brooke Hanson would have been in a similar position in Athens with no Olympic experience under her belt. Hanson was scheduled to swim the 100 breaststroke final just two swims prior to the semi-final of the 200 IM. Hanson is ranked No.1 in the 100 breaststroke after upsetting world record-holder Leisel Jones at the trials in 1:07.17. Hanson will also compete in the 200 breaststroke in Athens.<\/p>\n
Hanson has been replaced in the 200 IM by the promising 17-year-old Lara Carroll who finishing third in the Olympic trials in a promising 2:14.24. Carroll has also qualified to swim the 400 IM and could be considered a finals chance in both events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Stephen J. Thomas SYDNEY, Australia, May 26. TWO of Australia\u2019s top Olympic medal prospects — the three-time Olympian Petria Thomas and Brooke Hanson — have dropped individual swims in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n