Australian distance swimming great, Grant Hackett, has completed his first official swim since coming out of retirement late last year. Today, the 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medalist began his competitive swimming return at the Medal Shots Queensland Long Course Qualifying meet at the Brisbane Aquatic Center.
Hackett kicked off his three-event meet program with a solid time of 3:55.68 in the Men’s Open 400m freestyle to win the event. Hackett’s clocking is a very respectable outing for the 34-year-old, whose time now positions him as 42nd in the world rankings. Also in the field in the race were George O’Brien (3:57.57), Yasunari Hirai (4:00.05) and Cameron McEvoy (4:01.45). Training partner Thomas Fraser-Holmes was on the psych sheet, but did not swim the event. Below are the splits for Hackett’s 400m swim (timed final):
r:+0.70 26.30 55.70 (29.40)
1:25.76 (30.06) 1:56.22 (30.46)
2:26.58 (30.36) 2:56.83 (30.25)
3:26.51 (29.68) 3:55.68 (29.17)
Prior to the meet, Hackett’s coach, Denis Cotterell, told The Courier Mail that Hackett “might ignore the pain in a race or be a little more human and thing it’s hurting and not be able to respond.” He continued, “Whatever time he does it will be very respectable for his age and especially the time frame he has been training.”
The 3:55.68 time clears the 2015 Australian Swimming Championships qualifying time of 4:07.00, as earning the necessary cuts were acknowledged as the purpose for selecting this particular meet in which to compete. Hackett will take on the 200m freestyle later this afternoon (local time) before tackling the 100m freestyle tomorrow.
His 200 time was a 1.50.68 for 2nd behind McKeon.D’s 1.47.86. His 100 time was 51.38, again good enough for 2nd, behind Nedward McKendry.
Happy to see him back at 34 years old – very decent time ! let’s see how it unfolds for him this year and next year .
Wow. I had him down for a 3:58. Keep on smashing the Masters WR’s!! I’ve always wondered what the superstars would be able to do if they carried on with a decent training regime into their 30’s and 40’s. I guess that we are about to find out. Well done.
FWIW, that would be a Masters World Record for 30-34 by 3 seconds over Mr. Hackett’s former relay/teammate, Daniel Kowalski.
Very nice swim.
Plenty of time to take that down to the low 3:40 range before Rio.
GHackett. 3:55 Nice! Welcome back. And hey, maybe a 10K sometime in TV he
Well, we know marathon runners and triathletes can compete at a high level until their early 40s. In fact, triathletes seem to peek in their 30s, not their 20s. No reason swimmers can’t do the same.
The reasons as to why we are only starting to see this recently are twofold:
1. There wasn’t enough money in the sport for athletes to stick with it into a more advanced age.
2. Psychological burnout. It’s hard to do the brutal training swimmers must endure over many years. Especially the distance events, which requires much more difficult training. That is why most “comeback” swimmers do shorter events.
Not bad at all. Let’s see how he can build on this from here, and how this 200 looks.
Just makes us wonder with the lack of data points about what the limits are. How much of this Top-60 world ranking is genetic/nature v transformed genetics/nurture?
Properly dosed could Distance swimmers improve into their 30’s without injury? By distance I mean 400-800-1500 meters.