Illness strikes Kyle Chalmers’ campaign

Kyle Chalmers could be forced out of his last competition before next month’s national trials with a respiratory illness.

Kyle Chalmers. Picture: Annette Dew

Olympic 100m freestyle gold medallist Kyle Chalmers could be forced out of his last competition before next month’s national trials after contracting a respira­tory illness this week.

Chalmers, 18, is due to contest four events, including the 100m and 200m freestyle, at the NSW titles in Sydney this weekend but his coach, Peter Bishop, said he would withdraw if he failed to recover from his illness in time.

“We’re not sure if he’s going to race or not,’’ Bishop said. “If he’s 90 per cent (fit), he will race, but if he’s only 40-50 per cent, he won’t.’’

Bishop said they would prioritise Chalmers’s last training block before the trials, a 10-day altitude camp starting at Thredbo next week, rather than the race practice.

“He swam 48.8sec (for the 100m) in a meet last weekend so he has had some recent racing.’’

Chalmers has trained well over the past two months, increasing his training volume in preparation for a tilt at both the 100m and 200m freestyle at the trials in Brisbane.

“We want to give that 200m a bit of a shake,’’ Bishop confirmed, saying they hoped to earn Chalmers a spot in the 4x200m freestyle relay at least.

Most of the Rio Olympic team will reassemble in Sydney this weekend, including Chalmers’s fellow gold medallists Mack Horton, Cate and Bronte Campbell, Emma McKeon and Brittany Elmslie and backstroke world champions Emily Seebohm and Mitch Larkin.

One notable name to be absent is triple Olympian Belinda Hocking, who announced her retirement yesterday.

Hocking, 26, said she was tempted to swim on for next year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, where she would be defending the 200m backstroke title, but after returning to training for six weeks she realised she had lost the motivation.

After the well-publicised ­issues that leading athletes have had adjusting to retirement, Hocking said she had put plans in place to help her look forward.

She is part-way through a teaching degree, is doing an animal studies course through the RSPCA and is planning for a wedding next year.