Swimming Australia relaxes Shanghai selection standard

Australia has ripped up the national selection standards for the world championships in Shanghai in July after only 34 swimmers reached the tough times in Sydney this week. That gave 11 swimmers – seven men and four women – unexpected tickets to Shanghai, including Commonwealth Games gold medallist Geoff Huegill. National head coach Leigh Nugent explained the about-face by saying the panel had decided to pick a larger team to develop fringe candidates for next year’s Olympic team. Read The Australian.

“The aim of setting our own qualifying times was to raise the standard of performance and competition nationally, and we have certainly seen that in a number of events over the last eight days,” Nugent said. “With two Australian records and a handful of world class times, the performances bode well for the world championships in July and we have also selected the team with an eye to further developing athletes in the lead-up to London.”