Australia cut team numbers for Barcelona worlds

ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) –

Australia’s Alicia Coutts competes in the women’s 200m individual medley final during the swimming event at the London 2012 Olympic Games in London on July 31, 2012. Australia will send its smallest team in eight years to the Barcelona world championships in July after the completion of the eight-day national trials in Adelaide.

Australia will send its smallest team in eight years to the Barcelona world championships in July after the completion of the eight-day national trials in Adelaide on Friday.

A 36-strong team was announced — 10 fewer than Australia’s squad at last year’s London Olympics, which produced just one gold, their worst Olympic pool tally in 20 years.

It is also the smallest team since a 38-strong squad was named for the 2005 Montreal world championships.

Five-time London Olympic medallist Alicia Coutts faces a busy schedule in Spain where she has qualified for five individual events, plus the prospect of swimming in three relay teams.

The men’s 4x100m freestyle team, a disappointing fourth in London, will have a new look in Barcelona with the inclusion of Matt Abood.

All six relay members in London, including defending world 100m freestyle champion James Magnussen, were handed fines and suspended bans for misbehaviour including misuse of sleep drug Stilnox at a pre-Olympic camp.

There will be five debutants in the team — Alexander Graham, Grant Irvine, Emma McKeon, Ami Matsuo and Jordan Harrison, who became the first Australian in five years to go under 15 minutes (14:51.02) in the 1,500m freestyle in Adelaide on Friday.

Harrison, 17, now ranks only behind dual Olympic gold medallists Grant Hackett and Kieren Perkins as the fastest Australians of all-time over the 30-lap distance.

McKeon joins her older brother David, along with sprint sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell, making it the first time since 1972 that two sets of siblings have been selected in an Australian national swim team.

Sixteen of the 22 Olympic distances at the national trials were won in times faster than last year’s event. At the 2009 trials there were just seven faster events and in 2005 there were six.

Twenty swimmers produced personal best times at the trials to gain selection along with 10 world top times for the year.

“I would be confident in saying the individual time standards to make this team were probably the toughest in the world,” said new high performance manager Michael Scott.

“The swimmers and coaches to their credit during a challenging time for the sport have raised the bar but now we have to raise the bar in an international context.”