Magnussen’s body finally catching his mind as shoulder clicks up a gear

 

  

Swimming Australia, July 2, 2016: James Magnussen has tonight clocked his fastest post shoulder surgery 100m freestyle time in a major confidence booster for the former two-time world champion.

Magnussen clocked 48.49 to finish second behind Australian champion Cam McEvoy (48.43) on the first night of finals at the Rio Farewell Grand Prix in Brisbane.

 

Young gun Kyle Chalmers , who will join McEvoy in the individual 100m event in Rio next month, finished third in 48.80 with Magnussen’s Rio 4x100m freestyle team mate James Roberts fourth in 49.55.

 

Magnussen was beaming after the race, knowing his time would boost Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay and that his body was finally starting to catch up to his mind.

 

“It has been pretty demoralising knowing what you can do and feeling those physical limitations,” said Magnussen.

 

“So with my body starting to catch up with my mind it is so encouraging and gives me so much motivation for post Olympics.

 

“It is getting the strength in my left arm to sit up on my stroke; I’ve got a kind of unique technique; it takes a lot of strength and energy which is partly the reason I needed the shoulder re-construction.

 

“I just feel like it is sitting me back up now and just holding on longer during the race because of a better body position.”

 

McEvoy, who admitted he had been flat in the water, was pleasantly surprised with his heat and final times.

 

“I just had to focus on what I had to do and in the end the times in the  heat and final were almost identical to NSW State Championships (in February),” McEvoy said.

 

“It’s a bit eerie but I’ll take it; I went great at NSW State and ended up backing up four or five weeks later and swam faster so I guess that’s a good sign.”

 

Meanwhile Cate Campbell pumped out a confidence boosting 24.04 in an impressive 50m freestyle victory over sister Bronte (24,47) with Brittany Elmslie third in 24.78.

 

“It doesn’t really matter what I do now or in two weeks ;it is what I do when it’s the Olympics,” said Campbell.

 

“While this is really nice and it’s a great confidence booster you can’t read too much into it.”

 

Meanwhile in other events: Emma McKeon won the 100m butterfly in 57.82; brother David the 400m freestyle in 3:48.52; Junior Pan Pac representatives Minna Atherton the 200m backstroke in 2:08.08 and Matthew Wilson the 200m breaststroke in 2:13.83; Alicia Coutts the 200IM in 2:11.81; David Morgan the 200m butterfly in 1:59.31; Mitch Larkin the 100m backstroke in 53.22; Taylor McKeown the 100m breaststroke in 1:07.52; Tom Fraser-Holmes the 400m IM in 4:15.84; Bronte Barratt the 200m freestyle in 1:56.53 and Jess Ashwood the 800m freestyle in 8:21.16

 

Heats will commence at 9:30am at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre in Chandler, entry is free.

 

For a full list of results follow this link: http://liveresults.swimming.org.au/SAL/2016GP1/

 

To download the VNR follow this link: https://www.hightail.com/download/cUJYS3d0NEgwVWtLSk5Vag

 

In order of: 

 

Cate and Bronte Campbell - Women's 100m Freestyle

 

Mitch Larkin - Men's 100m Backstroke

 

Cameron McEvoy, James Magnussen and Kyle Chalmers - Men's 100m Freestyle

Emily Seebohm on pool deck