Magnussen saves his energy for the 100m James Magnussen is confident he has given the 4x200m freestyle relay selectors something to think about. WORLD 100m freestyle champion James Magnussen didn't need to contest last night's 200m freestyle final at the national trials to underline his potential in the event. Magnussen withdrew from the final yesterday to save his energy for the 100m, confident that he has given the 4x200m freestyle relay selectors something to think about in his first outing over the distance on Saturday, when he qualified third-fastest in the semi-finals, clocking a personal best time of 1:47.93. He said his goal in taking on this event was to "put in a time that's somewhere in the ballpark of a relay swim, putting (myself) under coaches' consideration" and he achieved that before the final. With the 100m freestyle beginning today, Magnussen did not want to expend more energy on the 200m yesterday, given that he is only beginning to explore his capacity over the more gruelling middle-distance event. Magnussen's coach Brant Best said they intended to follow the successful blueprint they established with the 100m freestyle, by introducing Magnussen to international competition in the 200m first as a relay swimmer, then attacking the individual event the following year. "At this one it's about being part of the relay and introducing him internationally, in the same way we did at the (Delhi) Commonwealth Games -- the relay first, get some individual experience at later meets and build a platform across a few years," Best said. All going to plan, that will mean Magnussen will have a serious crack at the 200m for next year's Glasgow Commonwealth Games, where the program will be more to his advantage as there are no semi-finals for 200m events. "We're going into new ground with him, we wanted to see how much it took out of him, we wanted to see where he was going to be in backing up for the individual 100m," Best explained. He's a big guy, 200m is a long way, it's a fair bit of extra distance for a guy of his size. He was a little bit sore and tired but he enjoys the challenge of taking on something new that he can't master straight away. It frustrates him a little bit but it's not a bad thing for him that he's got to work at the art of the 200m freestyle. He's caught a little bit because he wants to go. It's like holding back a race horse, he knows he can't go because he's going to hurt, so he was almost a little bit stuck last night between that galloping rhythm that he gets into and trying to hold back a little bit. Australia's queen of the pool Alicia Coutts also had a well-earned rest day yesterday after completing an exceptional double on Saturday night as she set the fastest times in the world this year over both the 100m butterfly (57.18sec) and 200m individual medley (2:08.63). lAustralia's men's middle-distance revival continued last night as Olympic finalist Thomas Fraser-Holmes became the first Australian man since Ian Thorpe in 2004, to swim the 200m freestyle in 1min45sec. In a race reminiscent of the Thorpe-Hackett era, Fraser-Holmes came from behind to down 18-year-old Cameron McEvoy, who also set a personal best of 1:46.03. In the most hotly contested event of the week, the entire field broke 1min48sec for the first time.