• Swimming

Rebecca Adlington allowed to defend 800m freestyle title

espn staff
December 11, 2009
Rebecca Adlington poses with the medals she won in Beijing © Getty Images
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Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington will be allowed to defend her 800 metres freestyle title in 2012 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) abolished plans to scrap the event.

The potential removal of the 800m freestyle emerged from proposals suggesting the unification of the male and female programmes for the next Olympics. Despite preliminary discussions being held in Berlin about this alteration, swimming's governing body Fina did not make any submissions to the IOC's executive board - meaning no changes can be made.

As an IOC spokeswoman made clear, the programme for the 2012 Olympics is now finalised: "As far as the IOC is concerned it needs to be validated by the executive board. The executive board closed yesterday so this is it, the programme is finalised for 2012."

Adlington has suffered a decline in form following her record-breaking triumphs at the 2008 Olympics. At the world championships at Rome, she was fourth in the 800m freestyle - which Adlington insists has been a valuable learning curve.

"I hadn't done the hard yards and I got found out in Rome. I learned so much more out of losing in 2009 than winning in 2008," Adlington said.

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