Hackett mourns Australia's loss after Sun beats 10-year 1,500-meter mark
Source: Agencies |
August 2, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GRANT Hackett was more saddened for his country than himself after China's Sun Yang broke the 1,500 meters record the Australian swimming great had held for a decade at the 14th FINA World Championships.
Teenager Sun swam a sensational final lap in Shanghai on Sunday to better the longest standing record on the books, clocking 14 minutes 34.14 seconds to beat the 14:34.56 Hackett set in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2001.
Hackett had taken the record off compatriot Kieren Perkins, who first claimed it in 1992 and twice improved his own mark, so Sun's swim took it out of Australian hands for the first time in 19 years.
"It's been nice to hang on to it for that long, but I really don't feel that sad, personally," Hackett told the Australian newspaper.
"I feel more that it is Australia losing something. I would have loved it to go to another Australian, but on a personal level sport evolves and you just accept it."
Hackett, who dominated the event and was unbeaten in finals for 11 years until the 2007 world championships, had predicted Sun would take his record but thought it would have been bettered by more than 0.42 seconds.
"I'm very surprised it was only by a whisker when it comes down to the 1,500," said the 31-year-old, who won three Olympic and 10 worlds golds before retiring in 2008.
"It's almost annoying that it was such a small margin. Hopefully another Australian can come up over time to get it back for us."
Meanwhile, Japan's head swimming coach has warned the country's elite swimmers they will win nothing at next year's London Olympics unless they learn from their world championships flop.
Norimasa Hirai told Japanese media yesterday: "If the swimmers don't improve their performances significantly we can forget about any gold medals in London."
A repeat of his 100 and 200 breaststroke double at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics next year looked beyond even Kosuke Kitajima's powers as he left Shanghai with just one silver.
With American Ryan Lochte and China's Sun grabbing headlines, and setting the only two world records, Hirai put his swimmers on red alert for next year's London Games.
"I expect more world records will be broken next year," Hirai said, while noting Japan's swimmers faced being left behind unless they tackled the challenge head-on.
"The world's best swimmers will all raise their level and come to London even stronger. We have to improve our times by quite a bit."
Japan finished the worlds with just four silver and two bronze medals.
"Athletes like Lochte and Sun can produce these results because they believe in what they're doing everyday in training, by training hard," Hirai said, adding backstroker Ryosuke Irie had committed a bad error in underestimating Lochte.
"I think some didn't predict how fast their rivals could swim. Ryosuke against Lochte, for example. Irie may have to reconsider his race plan against him."
Teenager Sun swam a sensational final lap in Shanghai on Sunday to better the longest standing record on the books, clocking 14 minutes 34.14 seconds to beat the 14:34.56 Hackett set in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2001.
Hackett had taken the record off compatriot Kieren Perkins, who first claimed it in 1992 and twice improved his own mark, so Sun's swim took it out of Australian hands for the first time in 19 years.
"It's been nice to hang on to it for that long, but I really don't feel that sad, personally," Hackett told the Australian newspaper.
"I feel more that it is Australia losing something. I would have loved it to go to another Australian, but on a personal level sport evolves and you just accept it."
Hackett, who dominated the event and was unbeaten in finals for 11 years until the 2007 world championships, had predicted Sun would take his record but thought it would have been bettered by more than 0.42 seconds.
"I'm very surprised it was only by a whisker when it comes down to the 1,500," said the 31-year-old, who won three Olympic and 10 worlds golds before retiring in 2008.
"It's almost annoying that it was such a small margin. Hopefully another Australian can come up over time to get it back for us."
Meanwhile, Japan's head swimming coach has warned the country's elite swimmers they will win nothing at next year's London Olympics unless they learn from their world championships flop.
Norimasa Hirai told Japanese media yesterday: "If the swimmers don't improve their performances significantly we can forget about any gold medals in London."
A repeat of his 100 and 200 breaststroke double at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics next year looked beyond even Kosuke Kitajima's powers as he left Shanghai with just one silver.
With American Ryan Lochte and China's Sun grabbing headlines, and setting the only two world records, Hirai put his swimmers on red alert for next year's London Games.
"I expect more world records will be broken next year," Hirai said, while noting Japan's swimmers faced being left behind unless they tackled the challenge head-on.
"The world's best swimmers will all raise their level and come to London even stronger. We have to improve our times by quite a bit."
Japan finished the worlds with just four silver and two bronze medals.
"Athletes like Lochte and Sun can produce these results because they believe in what they're doing everyday in training, by training hard," Hirai said, adding backstroker Ryosuke Irie had committed a bad error in underestimating Lochte.
"I think some didn't predict how fast their rivals could swim. Ryosuke against Lochte, for example. Irie may have to reconsider his race plan against him."
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
