Swimming selection standards set too high: Jacco Verhaeren

Head coach Jacco Verhaeren has conceded Swimming Australia may have set its national selection standards too high.

Taylor, left, and Kaylee McKeown, 15, the youngest member of the Australian team since Emily Seebohm 10 years ago.

Head coach Jacco Verhaeren has conceded Swimming Australia may have set its national selection standards too high for the year ­following the Olympic Games, after there were no direct qualifiers in almost half the individual events at the national trials this week.

There were no qualifiers in six of the 13 men’s events, and five of the 13 women’s events after the standard was set at top eight in the world. However, the national sel­ectors managed to name 31 swimmers for the world titles in Budapest in July, including 11 rookies, by choosing generous relay squads.

The top six were selected from both the 100m and 200m freestyle finals for the freestyle relays, and the top two were selected from each of the 100m form stroke finals to cover the medley relays.

Verhaeren confirmed that any of those athletes who finished in the top two in an individual event and had the International Swimming Federation’s more generous FINA A standard would also be entered in the individual events.

That means the men’s and women’s 400m individual medleys are the only events that are unlikely to feature Australian swimmers this year.

“We thought about going for the FINA A standards but at the end of the day we decided not to do that,’’ Verhaeren said.

“Our standards reflect our goals but at the same time we know that people who qualify through a relay and swim other events and make the FINA A ­standard, we can still enter them.

“That’s the route we chose ­because we are well aware that post-Olympics people take a break, they make different decisions, they start training later and you can’t compare it to last year.”

Verhaeren openly encouraged the established swimmers to take time off after the Olympics to ­replenish for another four-year campaign but the outcome of that has been that even some of the highest-profile swimmers fell short of the standards this week, including world champions Mitch Larkin (100m backstroke) and Bronte Campbell (50m freestyle).

However, at the other end of the spectrum there was a surge of fresh blood into the team. More than a third of the team will make their debuts for Australia at the world championships.

“Seeing what I saw the last few days with a lot of 18- to 20-year-olds qualifying for the team, that’s great news,’’ Verhaeren said. “I think this is exactly what you need first year of the cycle.’’

GRAPHIC: The rookies

Olympic gold medallists Mack Horton and Kyle Chalmers, four-times Olympic medallist Emma McKeon and defending world champions Bronte Campbell, Emily Seebohm and Larkin will headline the team.

The newcomers are led by 16-year-old Ariarne Titmus, the new national 400m and 800m freestyle champion, who has been the revelation of the week. But she will not be the junior member of the team. That honour belongs to 15-year-old 200m backstroker Kaylee McKeown, who is the youngest to be selected for the world titles since Emily Seebohm 10 years ago.

She will join her older sister Taylor, the Commonwealth 200m breaststroke champion.

At the other end of the rookie scale is 29-year-old 100m backstroker Holly Barratt, who will be the oldest swimmer to make her debut for Australia at the world ­titles. There is an exciting group of young male swimmers coming through, including 18-year-old breaststrokers Matt Wilson and Daniel Cave, 18-year-old free­styler Jack Cartwright and 19-year-old all-rounder Clyde Lewis. Freestyler Alex Graham, who was the youngest man on the 2013 world championships team, also makes his return to the team at 21, after a four-year absence during which he lost form and confidence. He has regained it under new coach Richard Scarce, who also coaches Cameron McEvoy at Bond University on the Gold Coast. Scarce was a controversial omission from the coaching team as Verhaeren chose to blood young coaches including Dean Boxall, Scott Talbot (son of the legendary Don) and Adam Kable with the view to broadening the national team’s coaching pool.

Verhaeren said the team was “truly exciting because it’s a reflection of where we are at this year, upcoming new talent we wanted to see because we can’t keep relying on the same people every year”.

“It’s a true transition year, but with the right people on board for a world championship team. (They are) not all medal winners, you can’t expect that from a young team like this, but it’s a very ­important step in their careers so very exciting.’’