SULLIVAN EXPECTING POOL DEPTH

 

BEIJING, August 6: Eamon Sullivan may be the fastest swimmer in history but the Australian speedster believes he will need to be at the top of his game just to make finals when competition gets underway at the Water Cube on Saturday (Day one, August 9).

 

The 22-year-old Western Australian shot to global prominence in February when he clocked 21.56 to smash Russian legend Alex Popov's world record of 21.64 for the 50 metres freestyle at the New South Wales Championships in Sydney. DAVID LYALL AOC REPORTS

 

That mark was lowered by Frenchman Alain Bernard who swam 21.50 at the European Championships in the same week that he established a new 100m world record of 47.50.

 

Sullivan followed Bernard's heroics with the second and third quickest 100m freestyle times in history before twice lowering the Frenchman's 50m mark in 24 hours at the Australian Olympic trials in March, finally leaving it at 21.28.

 

Since then a plethora of challengers have entered gold medal calculations for the 50m and five others have ducked under Popov's former record (although two, Frenchman Fredrick Bousquet and American Cullen Jones, failed to earn an Olympic berth in the event).

 

The same depth is evident in the 100m where four swimmers this year, including Sullivan, have swum faster than Dutch great Pieter van den Hoogenband's eight-year-old world and Olympic record of 47.84.

 

Sullivan said that depth means every swimmer in the top ten or twelve has a chance to contend for medals.

 

"I don't think there's one [favourite] in particular, there's been such great depth in sprinting form over the last year and a half that anyone in the semi final or the final is going to be a threat," Sullivan said.

 

"I don't think that my place in the final is cemented at all and I've still got a lot of hard work to do to get through the heat, semi and final to even have a chance at taking home a medal.

 

"There's definitely no one that I'm targeting in particular as a threat, I'm just making sure I can swim as fast as I can."

 

The second time Olympian believes the top line competitors have pushed each other to great heights over the last 12 months, part of the reason the 50m record has dropped so much.

 

"When I broke it the first time I didn't expect to break it by that much the second and third time, let alone see someone else break it in between," Sullivan said.

 

"Just the depth that has gone so far the last year, there's so many guys that have got up and swum fast and I think the competition we have amongst each other is something that's really driven that time down.

 

"Everyone swimming against each other over the last year has pushed us to find new ways to race and new ways to find a better hold on the water to swim faster and we've been pushing each other along for a long time."

 

The 50m freestyle is swimming's equivalent of the 100m sprint on the track and can be over in the blink of an eye, a competitor's hopes dashed at the slightest hint of a mistake and Sullivan thinks the associated pressure will show in the final leaving the combatants short of a world record.

 

"I don't think we'll see a world record in the final, I think if it's going to go it will be in the semi final, especially in the 50 freestyle where you have a final with that sort of pressure," he said.

 

Known as one of the coolest customers in the sport, Sullivan has a history of improving through each round of an event, something he cautiously considers an advantage at the Olympics.

 

"I'd like to think that I always tend to find a bit more up my sleeve every time I swim and I think that's what's got me to where I am today but the Olympics are a different ball game and this is my first time swimming individually and I don't want to get ahead of myself and expect things to happen," Sullivan said.

 

"We've all been talking about preparation and the way we will go about things by ticking off all the boxes after the heats and semis and finals to make sure we can get into the final in a good position and take it from there."

 

Sullivan was one of six Australian swimmers at the high profile team's only pre-Games press conference in Beijing.