Top form within reach

Coach says McEvoy needs to tweak his approach

JACCO Verhaeren says Cameron McEvoy has to “head back to the drawing board” despite his 50m bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games last night.

Verhaeren said McEvoy, who was one the world’s fastest sprinter, needed to make changes in the wake of his 100m performance on the Gold Coast but he had no concerns the 23-year-old was a “lost case”.

McEvoy won bronze in the 50m freestyle last night, touching the wall in 21.92sec behind England’s Ben Proud and South African Bradley Tandy to salvage something from a tough program.

But the blue riband 100m remains his focus.

McEvoy holds the world’s fastest time in a textile suit, a 47.04sec swim at the Olympic trials in 2016.

He failed to go close to that effort in Rio, fading in the final as Kyle Chalmers swamped the field to win a shock Olympic gold and has struggled in his pet event at these Games, just missing a medal despite adopting a death or glory approach that looked for all but the last few strokes that it would reap gold. Verhaeren does not believe McEvoy has wilted under pressure, but encouraged the Gold Coaster to examine his approach moving forward.

“I think with him it’s time to go back to the drawing board, see what he did very well leading up to his 47.0 – the standard he set for himself – and see how we can get back there pretty quickly,” Verhaeren said. “I’m not worried but it’s definitely something he needs to change with himself mainly, to get back up to the level.

“I’m not worried he can’t get there.

“Worried would mean we’re looking at a near-lost case and I don’t think that’s the issue at all. Physically he hasn’t changed, so he’s still very capable of doing incredible things but we need to find a way.”