Double Olympic medley champion Stephanie Rice has delayed flying to the US in readiness for 2010 Pan Pacific Championships in California until next Sunday to improve her chances of recovering from a shoulder injury. Last month the injury was reported to have been bad enough for Rice to have pulled out of both medley events at Pan Pacs.
Entered in the medleys and 100m butterfly at the Commonwealth Games, Rice will race the 50 and 100m free, and 50m back and butterfly in Irvine, according to Swimming Australia.
Her decision coincides with the withdrawal from the 59-strong squad of Patrick Murphy, who is suffering from a virus. That also means that he will miss Commonwealth Games in Delhi come October. The rest of the Dolphins are now on their way to the US.
Rice, 22, said: "The shoulder is still giving me a little bit of trouble, so Bohly (coach Michael Bohl) and I discussed going into camp as late as possible to maximise treatment and recovery here in Brisbane. This will give me the chance to have a few more physio sessions on the shoulder before flying out to the US, which will hopefully aid my preparations for the Pan Pacs, as well as the Commonwealth Games."
Those take place in Delhi in October, when Rice will face Hannah Miley (GBR), European champion in 4:33.09 in the 400m medley yesterday. And both may meet Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) this time round, Zimbabwe having had its suspension lifted since crackpot Robert Mugabe was booted out of the hot seat of power by Zimbabweans.
Murphy, who has been struggling with a respiratory virus for the last three weeks, suffers a double blow: no Pan Pacs means no delhi. He will focus instead on Dubai world s/c titles.
Australia Head Coach Leigh Nugent: :Pat has had a disrupted preparation over the last three weeks due to a virus, and had a further set back today, so he and his coach Vince Raleigh have made the decision to withdraw him from the team. With Stephanie and Michael, we’ve spoken at length about the best approach for the Pan Pacs preparation and we all feel that coming into camp as late as possible will give Steph the best opportunity to prepare and perform. She will miss a couple of days at our staging camp in San Diego, but then join us on the Sunday before the meet."
