Irvine covets making a splash in sub-51 club
ONE one-hundredth of a second.
It’s a minuscule amount but all that Grant Irvine needed to join butterfly’s sub-51 club.
The Griffith University swimmer notched one of the fastest times in the world last year when he finished seventh in the final of the 100m butter- fly at the world championships in Budapest.
But his time of 51.00 left him an agonising 0.01sec short of joining just a handful of athletes to have dipped under the 51sec barrier.
It could yet prove the making of Irvine though.
The 26-year-old has been best known as a 200m specialist, winning silver in the event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. But with a coveted medley relay spot on the line, Irvine and The Southport School squad member David Morgan are focussed on the 100m in a bid to join a relay that shapes as an Olympic medal prospect.
“I think definitely in Budapest I made that known that I was going to take the 100m more seriously and making the final at worlds was something I was proud of,” Irvine said. “It’s definitely something I’m targeting more than the 200m these days.”
That includes at the Commonwealth Games trials on the Gold Coast in three weeks’ time.
“At the moment there’s two of us (Irvine and Morgan) there a little bit in front but it’ll be interesting to see who else is coming forward at these Commonwealth Games trials,” he said. “I’ve never won the 100m at a trials, so I’ll be looking forward to the 100m final and it’ll be a good race.”
Irvine knows to be competitive on the international stage he needs to break new ground.
“That’s my goal this year is to try to swim 50-point and that’s got to be the mark these days to swim an international final,” he said.