A reconnaissance mission is how Perth coach Matt Magee sees Blair Evans's trip across the country to the South Australia state titles that run for three days from Friday.
The venue is the key: the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Adelaide will how the Australian Olympic trials March 15-22 and 20-year-old Evans has yet to compete in the pool.
"It’s more a reconnaissance mission than anything else," Magee tells the Western Australian. "We’ll just do really a dry run of trials, but it’ll be compacted down to a three-day schedule, with the same flights, accommodation, all of that stuff. From the swimming side of things it’s just about familiarity, checking out the facility and getting an idea of the venue before we get there [to trials]."
Accompanied at the meet by Perth teammate Travis Nederpelt, Evans, who won five races in swift times over 200m and 400m on world cup tour in Asia in November, will race the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle and both medleys in three days.
Her recent progress and commitment to Olympic year has drawn positive comment from Australian head coach Leigh Nugent as Evans prepares for battle with the likes of Kylie Palmer and Bronte Barratt for the right to wear green and gold at London 2012.
"Blair’s a great talent and she seems to have really focused now on this Olympic preparation,” Nugent told media Down Under of late. “She would have admitted herself that she’s been a bit patchy in the past. Some days were good, some days not so good, but she seems quite single-minded about what she’s doing now."
