GOLD COAST, Australia: Australia’s Cate Campbell said she’s willing to sacrifice her world sprint freestyle title in order to be fit for the 2016 Olympics after announcing a shoulder operation to end months of chronic pain.
The world, Commonwealth Games and newly-crowned Pan Pacific 100m freestyle champion said next year’s world championships in Russia were “not a major drama” compared to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“I’m actually getting shoulder surgery next week,” she told reporters, after winning the 50m freestyle gold.
Campbell, 22, was the dominant women’s sprinter at the Pan Pacs, which finished on the Gold Coast Sunday, winning the 50m and 100m freestyle events and helping Australia win the 4x100m freestyle and medley relays. Campbell, who won the 100m freestyle world title in Barcelona last year, said the surgery would remove a bone spur that was pinching a nerve on her right shoulder, ensuring she would miss the rest of the year.
She said she was prepared to miss defending her 100m freestyle title at next year’s world championships in Kazan, Russia if it meant she was fully fit by the 2016.
Campbell revealed she had been in “chronic pain” for months.
“I’ve been keeping it under wraps because I’m not one to complain or make excuses but now that I’m finished (the season) you probably won’t be seeing me for the rest of the year,” she said.
“It hasn’t hugely affected my training but it’s something I need to fix out from Rio.”
AFP
