Hannah Miley - 400m IM - 4:35.06
Whilst I picked Miley to win the 400 IM, the manner of her victory was not expected. After staying in contention with Mireia Belmonte on the fly leg (1:03.09 - 1:03.41), Miley took control of the race on the backstroke and never looked like being caught on the breaststroke and free. Beating Belmonte by over 5 seconds will give Miley a huge lift ahead of her busy summer of swimming (Europeans & Commonwealths). Belmonte will come back stronger and there is also Katinka Hosszu waiting in the wings, but Miley is establishing herself as the favourite for the 400 IM at Europeans.
Miley's time moves her up to third in the world this year, just behind Xuanxu Li (4:34.59) and Steph Rice (4:35.04).
Intriguingly Miley will face Katie Hoff and Ariana Kukors in Barcelona. The 400 IM is not on the schedule in Canet.
Runner-Up
Paul Biedermann - 400m Free - 3:48.77
Not because of the time he swam, but because Biedermann faced his toughest challenge of 2010 so far and passed it convincingly. He tracked Zhang Lin and Ous Mellouli for 300m before overhauling both men in the space of 50m. Biedermann, Lin and Mellouli are currently the three best 400 Free swimmers in the world and for Biedermann to win in the manner he did should answer some of his critics. Biedermann will continue to be at the forefront of male middle distance freestyle with or without the suit.
UPDATE - As David Rieder rightly pointed out, Park Tae-Hwan has proven to be equal to the three freestylers mentioned here and has to be included in the top tier of the 400m Free. Peter Vanderkaay is also in the mix, although if I had to rank all 5 guys he'd be number 5.
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Though Soni and Efimova's breaststroke times impressed me just as much, there is only one statement I disagree with: "Biedermann, Lin and Mellouli are currently the three best 400 Free swimmers in the world..." I think Park Tae-Hwan has proven with his 3:45.0 in February that he is just as good as any of them, and Peter Vanderkaay's 3:48.9 in Charlotte is no slouch time either. We'll get a much better sense of the scene this summer. I'm gonna take a more in-depth look at Biedermann and his events and competition soon.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree with Park Tae-Hwan, should have included him. I think its those 4 at the top of the world.
ReplyDeleteI like Peter VDK but I still think he's slightly behind those 4 guys... we'll see later this year.
If I had to pick the best 400 Free swimmer in the world right now though I'd go with Biedermann. The 200 Free, now that's the interesting question!
Both the 200 and 400 free big mysteries right now. We'll talk about them some more in three months when we see where people actually are. Some minor things change now without the suits for all swimmers, and we won't know how significant the change until after Europeans and Pan Pacs.
ReplyDelete3.48 in-season is good for Biedermann, but Park's 3.45 in february was also in-season. Coming home the second 200 in 1.51 showed he had plenty left in the tank. He will be number 1 by the end of the year
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