The votes are in and the swimming world has spoken. Michael Phelps will win the 200m Free at Worlds this year. With the collective swimming knowledge of this blog's readership, you can mark that down as fact.
In the most popular vote hosted on this blog so far, close to 500 people gave their opinion. Here are the results of the most intriguing event in world swimming.
Top Tier
Michael Phelps - 207 votes (42.6%) - Reports are that Phelps is training well again after an off-year in 2010. If he gets back to his very best, then I agree with the voters on this one.
Ryan Lochte - 161 votes (33.1%) - World short-course champion and ranked second in the world long-course in 2010. The event schedule is friendly in Shanghai with the 200m Free the first event on Day Three.
Chasing Pack
Paul Biedermann - 33 votes (6.8%) - Third in the vote but a long way behind the American duo. Suit or no suit, the last time the world got together over 200m Free long-course, Biedermann was victorious.
Park Tae-Hwan - 29 votes (6.0%) - Bit of a surprise that the fastest man over 200m in 2010 only received 6% of the vote. I see Park winning in Shanghai as a very real possibility.
Yannick Agnel - 25 votes (5.1%) - The French youngster has hit the ground running in 2011 already posting a blazing 1:46.55 untapered. The scary thing about Agnel, he is only going to get faster.
Need to find something extra to challenge
Sebastiaan Verschuren - 12 votes (2.5%) - In the shadow of his European rivals, 22-year-old Verschuren continues to improve. Will need to drop a substantial amount of time to win in Shanghai though.
Oussama Mellouli - 6 votes (1.2%) - He's a 1500m swimmer right? Not if the Missouri Grand Prix is anything to go by, Mellouli won every Freestyle event 100 right through to 1500. His 200m Free time was a seriously impressive 1:47.03.
Danila Izotov - 6 votes (1.2%) - Had we taken this poll last year Izotov would have pulled in many more votes, however after a lackluster long-course season last year his stock has fallen. His performance in Dubai, a silver medal in the 200m Free behind Lochte, shows signs that he is returning to his exceptional best.
Sun Yang - 5 votes (1.0%) - His 1500 was voted the top performance of 2010, but he hasn't convinced enough people that he can acheive the same standard over 200m. Here's some food for thought - he swam 1:46.25 long-course last year, has just turned 19-years-old, is improving rapidly and will be swimming at home. He is my wild-card to take gold at Worlds.
Nikita Lobintsev - 2 votes (0.4%) - Shown no love from the voters, the European long-course silver medalist had the fastest last 50m of that race. No mean feat in a field that contained three of the men above him on this list.
I have faith in Phelps. People saying he's lost it, doesn't have interest in swimming any more but I think he might just have been smart about being 'off' about swimming in the years between the Olympics because training and focusing on swimming is incredibly gruelling, and he might get it together for the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above post, which is why I am also wondering if Lochte is wearing himself out a bit before the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteWell, we will know soon enough.
My pick was Park. Now that he says he won't focus on 1500m, I am curious to see how that will affect his shorter events including 100m.
Also looking forward to seeing Agnel race as well. Seems like an exciting talent!
I will go with Lochte as he is a freestyle swimmer, noted for speed and distance he attains while kicking underwater, also known for dominance in the short course format (25-meter long swimming pool).
ReplyDelete