Cody Simpson has swum fast enough to qualify for the Olympics next month, however the former popstar won’t be boarding a plane to Paris.
An average heat swim cost Simpson the chance of representing Australia in the 100m freestyle, where he finished ninth.
His heat time made him miss out on advancing to the A-final by less than two tenths of a second.
Simpson went on to win the B-final with a time of 48.67 seconds. The swim could have earned him a spot on the Olympic team; his time would have placed him sixth had he raced in the A-final.
“I should have done that this morning. That was great, just a good lesson for the future I suppose, making sure I’m ready to go in the morning,” Simpson said following the B-final.
“Obviously you’re always going to swim faster at night but it’s super promising. My coach will be giving me a slap up the side of his cheek.
“That was kind of the goal going into tonight, see if you can post a time that would have done something good in that A final because I didn’t get the chance.”
Simpson has another chance to qualify for Paris this Saturday in the 100m butterfly.
It’s a major task at hand for the 27-year-old, whose best in the stroke is 51.67, yet the qualifying time is 51.17.
“Swimming’s tricky. You can train for a long time for really marginal gains, microscopic sometimes,” Simpson said.
“I had a really great shift the first two years and just sort of been banging at the brick wall trying to get that next level.”