Rio 2016: Cameron McEvoy ready for showdown against Olympic champion Nathan Adrian
SOCIAL media has prepared Cameron McEvoy for the precise ambush of US star Nathan Adrian before the two swimmers go head to head in Rio.
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SOCIAL media has prepared Cameron McEvoy for the precise ambush of US star Nathan Adrian after the Australian revealed Twitter had let slip his major 100m freestyle gold medal threat was ready to defend his Olympic crown.
As Adrian celebrated his “dream” 4x100m freestyle relay victory at the Olympic Aquatic Centre last night, McEvoy was enjoying his own bronze medal with Australia but immediately began to plot how to exact revenge in the individual race starting tomorrow.
Adrian had sent a message in the relay victory. His split time of 46.97s was the fastest in the race and just 0.03s ahead of McEvoy’s own anchoring effort.
There were other lightning quick swims that show the 100m freestyle won’t be a two-fish race – notably France’s Jeremy Stravius (47.11s) and Russian Vladimir Morozov (47.31s) – but the Adrian v McEvoy battle will headline the show.
Adrian managed to ambush Australia’s world champion James Magnussen in London four years ago but there was never a chance McEvoy would fall into the same trap.
If McEvoy had any doubts the American was ready to go faster than his impressive US trials last month, they were erased in yesterday’s relay final and last week on social media.
McEvoy said he’d found a tweet which suggested Adrian can swim faster than he did in the relay final because the American had done so at the secret US training camp in Atlanta last week.
“I think he went 46.9 (in the relay) and I think he went 46.8 at their training camp a week or so ago,” McEvoy said.
Asked how he knew inside US secrets, McEvoy said: “It was on Twitter or something like that.”
God bless social media. Unlike four years ago when Magnussen was a sitting duck to having his half second advantage on the rest of the world erased in less than 48 seconds, McEvoy has seen this ambush coming a long way out.
“I’ve always expected that the 100m freestyle is going to be a race, in my mind I was never going in first hand expecting to win and I guess that relay shows my prediction was correct to an extent,” he said.
“Relays are very different to individuals, they’re raced differently and I’m just extremely happy with the split I did.
“All I can do is take that with me into the individual in two days’ time.”
McEvoy needs to be wary of friendly fire too, as one of the best swims yesterday was his own teammate Kyle Chalmers who split 47.04s in the heats before backing it up with a 47.30s in the final.
With his nerves now settled the South Australian 18-year-old just might shock them all.
“I’m very happy with the morning swim, but I felt I probably could have gone a little faster tonight it was probably a bit daunting going into my first final internationally,” Chalmers said.
“We will see what happens in a couple of days’ time.”
Originally published as Rio 2016: Cameron McEvoy ready for showdown against Olympic champion Nathan Adrian
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