walking wounded first up in budapest
The first day of competition at the Alfred Hajos pool will see two of Britain's high profile injury worries take to the water and try and prove that their recoveries have proceeded to plan. Both Liam Tancock and Chris Cook are genuine medal contenders, but the effect of recent injuries on their physical condition is yet to be revealed, publicly at least.
David Davies - ruled out of the Budapest meet
Photo: © Steve Buckley/pullbuoy
The period since the Commonwealth Games hasn't been kind to the physical wellbeing of the British Team. David Davies is definitely out of this meet following surgery to remove an abscess form his ankle. While his loss is a big blow to Britain's medal prospects, Cook, recovering form a groin strain, and Tancock, who returned to the water recently after breaking his wrist, will be two swimmers anxious to fill that void.
Cook tweaked his groin preparing for the Mare Nostrum Tour, but used his recuperation time wisely. "It’s going to focus me on other aspects of training," he said at the time, "as I won't be able to work on my kick until my groin heals, so therefore it could be good for other areas of my stroke. You have to remain positive."
That positive attitude appears to have paid dividends with the Newcastle swimmer joining the fray on the first morning."I'm confident it’s healed now," said Cook at the start of July, "but I've lost three-to-four weeks’ valuable training and race preparation, and that is going to be key in such tightly contested events", but added: "Just because you can't go through the front door it doesn't mean you can't go through the window."
Tancock, meanwhile has had more time to overcome his own injury woes, breaking his wrist in a fall down a flight of stairs less than a month after his gold medal winning exploits in Melbourne."I couldn't believe it. I just slipped down the stairs and banged my wrist," explained the Loughborough based swimmer, "I got it checked out and discovered I'd broken my radius at the wrist of my right arm."
Liam Tancock - aiming to bounce back from injury. Photo: © Steve Buckley/pullbuoy
Like Cook, he wasn't kept out of the water for long and used the time to work on his kick, before making a comeback on the Mare Nostrum Tour, just eight weeks after the original mishap. That tour gave him a chance to test his fitness and he responded with a final placing in the 100m backstroke in Barcelona and a win in the B final of the 200IM. With a few more weeks full training under his belt he should now be confident of being competitive in Budapest.
It's not all the men who have been accident prone however; Jo Jackson was recently involved in a car crash while already recovering from a back injury. "I'd only been back in the water a week," recalls the Durham based swimmer, "things were going well and then I had a pretty major car crash which left me with a damaged sternum, ribs and clavicle." Fortunately, the damage was not too serious and she now lines up in the 400m freestyle and her first event, the 4x200m freestyle.