Note to Jedrejczak, Potec, Poll, Coughlin, Marshall, etc: Watch your back. After the announcement this week that 2001 200 free world champion Giaan Rooney was throwing her swim cap back in the ring after concentrating on backstroke for the past few years, another high-profile Aussie has declared her interest in the 200 free.

Jodie Henry, Olympic champion and current world recordholder in the 100m freestyle has stated that in the near future, she'd like to swim the 200 free. Though Henry initially opposed the idea, coach Shannon Rollason finally talked her into swimming the event during preliminaries at the Australian Olympic Trials. With her time of 1:59.23, she would have made the Olympic final. Suddenly, the 200 free became a very real prospect.

Henry's progression somewhat mirrors that of a woman who could soon become one of her fiercest competitors. Great Britain's Melanie Marshall thought of herself as a freestyle 50/100 specialist exclusively until 2003, and feared the 200 free. As swimmers in the 100 kept getting faster, eventually dipping below 54 seconds, the 5 ft 6 in Marshall took her coaches advice and began to develop the courage to train for the 200 freestyle. Within a year, she became the European short course champion in the event, and swam a 1:57.51 at the British Olympic Trials, which, even after the Olympic Games still ranks as the fastest time in the world this year.

Just as with Marshall, the challenge Henry once feared is now a serious opportunity to become the world's fastest 200m freestyler. The four-lap event plays to the strengths of Henry, who, as the 100m world record holder, has punishing speed in the swim, but at a lanky 5'9 cannot get off the wall or the starting block with as much speed and power as most of her Amazonian competitors.

Excited about the opportunity, Henry told Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper, "I'd like to do it eventually. It's a matter of having confidence in my 200 and getting experience. I didn't want to push it before the Olympics, but now, I am going to try."

As previously announced, Henry will begin her competition schedule for the new season at the Melbourne edition of the FINA World Cup, November 26-28.