Trickett boosts hopes
Australian three-time Olympic champion Libby Trickett swims to fastest time to boost her hopes of reaching London Games.
Last Updated: 10/02/12 12:26pm
Three-time Olympic champion Libby Trickett believes she now has a real chance of being selected for Australia's Olympic swimming team after setting her fastest time since coming out of retirement.
The 27-year-old shaved one second off her previous best mark since announcing her comeback in June as she clocked 54.87 seconds in the 100m freestyle heats at the New South Wales championships.
Australia will hold their trials for this summer's London Olympics in Adelaide next month.
"I feel like people might believe that I actually might make the Olympic team again," said Trickett.
"The fact that I've put together a sub-55 swim, that's competitive. And for me, I just feel like less of a fraud.
"I feel like I am mixing it with these top girls in Australia now and I'm not just like: 'Hey, I used to be really fast at swimming, I'm going to try it again and see how I go but not really swim very fast'.
Awesome
"It was quite bizarre really, I really didn't expect that time. Almost 12 months ago I was going 1:02 in the summer series, compared to that it's awesome."
Trickett retired in late 2009 but, along with Australia's five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe, is now targeting a return to the Olympic squad.
Under her maiden name Lenton she won 4x100m relay gold at the Athens Games before adding individual 100m butterfly gold and the 4x100m medley relay title at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Trickett recently reunited with her coach Stephan Widmer who helped guide her to victory in China four years ago.
"Every step along this process, whether they be challenges or setbacks, it's really fun to try and overcome everything," Trickett added. "It's really quite rewarding."
