Swimming world champion James Magnussen plans to keep his international rivals guessing as much as possible by not racing abroad until the London Olympics.
Magnussen, 20, has emerged as the man the sprint world has to catch after his stunning showing at July's world championships which included gold medals in the 100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.
The Port Macquarie swimmer was a virtual unknown before the meet and revealed on Thursday he is hoping to preserve at least some of that "shock factor" by confining his racing to Australia in the next eight months.
"I guess one of the biggest weapons I had at the world championships was the fact that nobody knew who I was," Magnussen said.
"... I'm sure there's a lot of race footage out there now that other coaches are studying and trying to teach their swimmers how to race me but you really need to race somebody and be next to them to get a feel for how they swim and how you can overcome them.
