{"id":308103,"date":"2023-06-14T08:11:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T08:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=308103"},"modified":"2023-06-15T01:59:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T01:59:56","slug":"trials-flop-puts-olympic-champs-future-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=308103","title":{"rendered":"Trials flop puts Olympic champ's future in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic<\/a> champion Mack Horton<\/a> is at risk of missing next month's World Championships in Japan after he finished 22nd overall in the heats of the 200m freestyle at the Australian national team trials.<\/p>\n

Since claiming Olympic gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Rio Games, Horton has been unable to recover his winning form across the long distance events.<\/p>\n

He was powerless to defend his crown at the Tokyo Olympics after failing to qualify for the Australian team ahead of the Games in 2021.<\/p>\n

Horton also missed the 400m final at the 2022 World Championships but later picked up a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

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On the opening night of the Australian trials, Horton finished third in the 400m freestyle behind Sam Short and Elijah Winnington.<\/p>\n

\"Elijah<\/p>\n

To make the cut for the Australian team, swimmers must come under Swimming Australia's strict qualifying time for the event while also placing in the final's top two.<\/p>\n

A further four swimmers \ufeffare then selected to form the wider relay teams.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Swimming World Championship Trials exclusively on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Unable to qualify individually in recent times, Horton has recently been holding his place in the national team through selection for Australia's 4x200m freestyle team – winning bronze in Tokyo and gold at last year's Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

But now, having bombed out in the 200m freestyle, Horton must fire in \ufeffThursday's 800m freestyle if he is to book his seat to Japan and reinforce his push for Paris 2024.<\/p>\n

Horton appeared lethargic\ufeff during his heat on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of the heat swims, Horton's time of 1:51.04 was the 22nd fastest from the 60-odd man field.<\/p>\n

\"Mack<\/p>\n

Kyle Chalmers (1:46.97) qualified fastest for Wednesday night's final but pulled out of the event to concentrate on his efforts in the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly.<\/p>\n

If Horton \ufeffcannot force his way onto the team, his professional swimming career, along with his hopes of competing in Paris, could be in danger.<\/p>\n

In spite of this, his coach Michael Bohl said that by winning the sport's ultimate prize, Horton did not have to do anything more to prove his greatness.<\/p>\n

"Let's see what happens, he's still got the 800m, but it's just been a privilege looking after him," he told reporters.<\/p>\n

"He's such a lovely person. He's working his backside off and working really hard. He's getting a bit older and 27. It is harder, those longer events.<\/p>\n

"He's won an Olympic gold and hasn't really got to prove too much to anyone. I just think he's enjoying his swimming and loving it. He's a popular member of our group. Everyone loves him."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympic champion Mack Horton is at risk of missing next month's World Championships in Japan after he finished 22nd overall in the heats of the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308103"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308107,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308103\/revisions\/308107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/298483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}