Sullivan Stuns The World

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday February 18, 2008

Michael Cowley

EAMON SULLIVAN is silent no more. The man who had been one of the best-kept secrets in men's sprinting, last night shouted his credentials to the rest of the planet with a staggering world-record performance at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

Despite being in training in preparation for next month's Olympic selection trials, and having been ill for three weeks during that training phase, Sullivan produced a remarkable swim, a 21.56-second effort to lower the previous world 50m freestyle mark of 21.64s which legendary Russian Alex Popov had set in Moscow in 2000.

The time also savaged his own Australian mark of 22.00s set in Brisbane in 2006. Getting under that time and becoming the first Australian to swim sub-22s was all he was really hoping for.

The world record is the next step in the evolution of Sullivan, who last March showed he had the makings of something special with a third place in the 100m freestyle at the world championships in Melbourne. Despite the placing he still hadn't posted any times to worry the rest of the world's elite, and as such he considered himself the "silent assassin".

"I'm a bit surprised myself," he said after climbing from the pool. "I felt really, really good in the warm-up, and we've been working towards getting under the 22s for the first time.

"We've made some really big gains in the gym and in training and I knew if I could put all my bits of my best races together I would be in for a shot at the 22s, but to take that much off my PB was amazing.

"[When he looked at the scoreboard after the race] I thought it was 22.56s and I went, 'Crap'. Then I saw the one and I was shocked. I was just really, really happy with the swim.

"Coming off the back of three weeks of illness I didn't really know how I was going to perform coming in here. The 100m went really well [he also swam a PB in that event of 48.28s] and I knew I went 22.1s at WA States [titles], so I thought if was able to swim that same race and just take a bit off I should be able to get under 22 ... but I never thought I'd go that fast."

After being asked how it felt to be the fastest swimmer in history, Sullivan replied: "I was only just getting used to being the fastest man in Australia.

"I've usually been the person who lurks in the shadows and it's good to step out and tell people that I'm here."

Sullivan will now be on the radar of all sprinters heading into Beijing. It's a similar scenario to that which Libby Lenton endured in 2004. She broke the world mark in the 100m freestyle five months out from the Olympics, and then in Athens she failed to make the final.

"It's going to be different going in," he said of the pressure now on him. "It will be good to have a different outlook, to know that people are worried about me. I'll obviously have to sit down and have a chat with a lot of people and figure out my game plan because it's usually me targeting other people.

"Now it's going to be them targeting me. I think it's still important to talk to Libby and Michael Klim as well after he went in and broke the 100m world record [in the 4 x 100m relay in Sydney in 200] before he swam his individual event. I think it would be interesting to see what they went through and sort of be prepared for it."

Sullivan said he wasn't surprised that Popov's time had now been erased, he just didn't think it would be him with the eraser.

"The way other people have been swimming I didn't think that world record would stay around long," he said. "I was sort of expecting it to go, but not by me.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few other guys who might give that record a nudge as well. Hopefully someone breaks it in the meantime [before the Olympics] then I can have another go at it."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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