Mack has his sights on Tokyo

OLYMPIC champion Mack Horton admits he has grieved the departure of the 1500m freestyle from his international program, but remains confident the move will pay off as he targets more gold in Tokyo.

Horton made the difficult decision to cut the distance event from his schedule following the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April to focus on the 200m, 400m and the 800m freestyle, which has been added to the Olympic program for the 2020 Games in Japan.

The Rio Olympic 400m champion, Horton’s natural speed in the shorter distances ultimately made the decision a logical one, despite the 1500m freestyle being his first love in the pool and Australia’s proud history in the event.

Horton, 22, said he had not yet had the chance to see how his other events would benefit from cutting the 1500m from his program, but was eager to find out.

“It was sad [to drop the 1500m], but then in saying that there is a proud history in the 400m as well and I’ll hopefully keep pushing on with that,’’ Horton said.

“[The 1500m] is an event I love, but after spending all that time with [Italian Olympic 1500m champion] Greg [Paltrinieri] training in Australia I think that made it pretty obvious that I was more suited to where I am now.

“It will be interesting to see [results] now that the 1500m isn’t in there. I still haven’t had a meet where I’ve had the time to see the benefits of getting rid of that 1500m.’’

Horton returns to competition at the national short course championships, starting at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre today.