Cameron McEvoy needs to make some changes if he hopes to rediscover world’s best form

SWIMMING Australia head coach Jacco Verhaeren has spoken about the changes Cam McEvoy needs to make if he wants to rediscover the form that made him the world’s fastest sprinter.

JACCO Verhaeren says Cameron McEvoy has to “head back to the drawing board” as he attempts to rediscover the form that made him the world’s fastest sprinter.

Verhaeren said McEvoy needed to make changes in the wake of his 100m performance on the Gold Coast but he had no concerns the 23-year-old was a “lost case”.

McEvoy holds the world’s fastest time in a textile suit, a 47.04sec swim at the Olympic trials in 2016.

He failed to go close to that effort in Rio, fading in the final as Kyle Chalmers swamped the field to win a shock Olympic gold and has struggled at these Games, just missing a medal in the 100m despite adopting a death or glory approach that looked for all but the last few strokes that it would reap gold.

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Verhaeren does not believe McEvoy has wilted under pressure.

But he has encouraged the Gold Coaster to examine his approach moving forward.

“I think with him it’s time to go back to the drawing board, see what he did very well leading up to his 47.0 — the standard he set for himself — and see how we can get back there pretty quickly,” Verhaeren said.

“I’m not worried but it’s definitely something he needs to change with himself mainly, to get back up to the level.

“I’m not worried he can’t get there.

“Worried would mean we’re looking at a near-lost case and I don’t think that’s the issue at all.

“Physically he hasn’t changed, so he’s still very well capable of doing incredible things, but we need to find a way.”

Can McEvoy rediscover his best form?

Verhaeren said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly why McEvoy had not been at his best.

“It’s also not just one thing, it’s maybe a little bit in training, a little bit in technique, a little bit in mentality, so it’s coming all together,” he said.

“Sometimes that brings you a great performance and sometimes it brings this.

“But I’m very hopeful for him.”

McEvoy, who also won gold with the 4x100m relay and made the 50m final, admitted his performances were not what he had wanted this week.

But he was not panicking.

“I’ve already got a few ideas as to what I might have overdone and underdone,” he said.

“Probably I was too ambitious with some of the aerobic work for most of the season and … I think that could have had a bit of suppression on the speed.

“It’s not like I’m standing here in a panic mode going: ‘What the hell is wrong, I don’t know what’s going to happen after this’.

“I’ve got a very good idea of what to do and how to progress forward from here.”

Originally published as Cameron McEvoy needs to make some changes if he hopes to rediscover world’s best form