There are 610 days to go until the London Olympic Games and already the Australian men’s sprint relay teams have started to build for July 2012, with the likes of Eamon Sullivan, Brenton Rickard, Kyle Richardson and Tommaso D’Orsogna all in action at the AIS this week.

Wrapping up the three-day London relay camp in Canberra this morning, 14 of the Australia’s best male sprint swimmers have worked on turns, starts and combinations in a bid to see the Australian Swim Team repeat the relay success of Sydney 2000 where they won gold in the 4x100m freestyle.

Attending his third London relay camp in less than 18 months, NSWIS coach Grant Stoelwinder says getting the group together every six months or so is vital for success in 2012.

“This is the third instalment of these camps and we’ll probably have another three before London,” said Stoelwinder.

“Already we are seeing improvements, especially on the wet-plate testing, with five out of the eight that have already been on camps previously, improving on their relay change over times.”

“One of the strengths of the men’s team in Australian relays over the years has been the camaraderie and the more that we can get this group to buy into the program, and gel with each other, they’ll not only be swimming for their country but for their mates as well.”

“We see it in male sports all the time, how strong a group can be and that’s just what we are trying to create and we’re certainly on the way to that now.”

Stoelwinder says to be competitive in a relay at the Olympic level there needs to be a nucleus of six to eight swimmers who can step up and do the job, and one of those on the fringe is 23-year-old Matt Abood from Kingscliff in NSW.

A rookie on the team to Rome last year for the World Championships, Abood missed out on Commonwealth Games selection this year, but will swim for Australia at the World Short Course Championships in Dubai next month.

“It’s a great opportunity coming to these camps and I think there are at least six to eight guys all heading in that one direction, and I certainly want to be part of that for London,” said Abood.

“These relay camps have given us the opportunity to continue to improve our times on the wet-plate testing with changeovers, and it’s also good to get together and get to know each other a bit better outside of competition.”

Abood finished seventh in the 100m freestyle at the Telstra Australian Championships this year but showed his strong underwater skills this morning to defeat his training partners in a knockout sprint over 15m.

The men’s sprint relay camp for London was attended by Matthew Abood, Andrew Abood, Ashley Delaney, Tommaso D’Orsogna, Andrew Lauterstein, James Magnussen, Mitchell Patterson, Cameron Prosser, Kyle Richardson, Brenton Rickard, James Roberts, Nicholas Schafer, Christian Sprenger and Eamon Sullivan.

Swimming Australia