Beijing: Australian Cameron McEvoy says he was confident of swimming much faster than his personal best of 47.04 seconds in the men’s 100m freestyle, taking himself as one of the best sprinter swimmers in the world.
McEvoy showed up at the news conference on Thursday ahead of the 2017 FINA swimming World Cup (short-course) being held on November 10-11 here, reports Xinhua news agency.
The 23-year-old who mainly accomplished in short distance freestyle events, was scheduled to compete in the 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle as well as the 50 backstroke this time in Water Cube, the Beijing Olympic swimming venue.
“My goal for this competition is to again swim the best I can swim. I would like to do some best times for me in my events,” said McEvoy. “The backstroke is a little different for me, so I would try to have a little bit fun with that and enjoy swimming in the Water Cube because it’s really a nice venue.”
McEvoy trailed Chinese Ning Zetao for the silver medal in the 100m freestyle at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan and brought home two relay medals from last year’s Rio Olympic Games.
Although failing to achieve any good result at this year’s World Championships in Budapest, McEvoy was confident about keeping his form as the top-class sprinter
“I believe my ability with sprinting is best in the world. I believe by training hard and by continuing to keep going back to compete, I’ll be out to reach my potential,” said McEvoy.
“My best time right now is 47.04 in the 100m freestyle and I know I can swim much faster than that. So my goal is to keep swimming and hopefully to break that barrier.”
McEvoy’s best timing was set up at the Australian Championships last year. But he failed to make any matched performance in the 100m freestyle final at the Rio Olympic Games, only finishing seventh in 48.12 seconds.
Talking about pressures during big competitions, McEvoy said: “I think over the past few years, I learnt a lot on how to deal with that. Right now I feel very comfortable and I know my potential and my ability. And also I have a lot of love for the sport. So I just remember that and try to get on to swim and hopefully all the times it works out well.”(IANS)
