Taking A Closer Look at Hannah Miley's 4:32.67 400m IM

Day One of the British Olympic trials saw Hannah Miley set a new textile lifetime best in the 400m IM and moved herself to the top of this year's world rankings.

Her time of 4:32.67 was 1.55 seconds faster than her silver medal winning performance at the World Championships and brings her to within a second of Elizabeth Beisel's textile best time from Shanghai.

As one of the comments on this site pointed out, Miley's 300m split was actually faster than Beisel's. So where has Miley made improvements since Shanghai?

Miley Shanghai - Fly - 30.3/1:03.97 - Back - 35.6/1:10.64 - Breast - 38.3/1:16.98 - Free - 32.2/1:02.63
Miley London - Fly - 29.8/1:03.10 - Back - 34.7/1:09.36 - Breast - 37.9/1:16.77 - Free - 32.2/1:03.44

Miley's improved her splits on every stroke up until 300m with the biggest improvements on her Backstroke and Butterfly. A notoriously slow starter, being closer to the field over the first 200m should serve Miley well.

Elizabeth Beisel established herself as the clear world number one in this event, here is how her Shanghai splits match up to those of the Scot (with overall lead in brackets). In a virtual head-to-head the lead changes with every stroke:

Beisel Shanghai - Fly - 29.6/1:03.32 (+0.22 behind Miley) - Back - 34.7/1:08.64 (-0.50 in front) - Breast - 38.5/1:17.84 (+0.57) - Free - 31.2/1:01.98 (-0.89)

Miley's greatest weapon in the Medley continues to be her Breaststroke. Among the world's top IMers only Caitlin Leverenz has a better Breaststroke leg and until now the American hasn't been able to match Miley's Backstroke or Freestyle. The biggest step forward that Miley made yesterday was on her Backstroke, getting within 0.7 seconds of Beisel's world class Backstroke.

The challenge now for Miley (and her coach who happens to be her father) is to make sure that she can drop even more time at the Olympics. It was something she had failed to do in 2008 and 2009, but has dropped time in both of the last two major championships, boding well for London.

The only negative from yesterday's swim was the freestyle leg. It was a full 0.8 seconds slower than Miley's closing 100 at Worlds and nearly 1.5 seconds slower than Beisel's Shanghai closing speed. Given that Miley is a more than competent freestyler, this comes as a slight surprise. Both women's freestyle times are similar, in 2011 Beisel swam 1:59.17 and 4:08.57 in the 200m and 400m Free, compared to Miley's 1:59.34 and 4:09.59.

At the Olympics with the home crowd cheering on Miley and potentially being at the head of the field, it may be enough to get Great Britain off to a golden start.

Top 51 Swimmers of 2011 - 51 to 42

As another year of great swimming comes to a close, here is a rundown of the Top 50 Swimmers of 2011. There is no set criteria, but clearly the World Championships in Shanghai carried a big weight in the decision making process. That being said, outstanding achievements away from Shanghai were still acknowledged (looking at you number 44).


Thanks for reading Speed Endurance this year. Next year should be something a bit special!

Today we start with numbers 51 through to 42.

51. Miriea Belmonte Garcia – 2011 Highlight – Getting the better of Lotte Friis over 800m Free in December, where her time of 8:22.78 moved her to 3rd in the world rankings.

The breakthrough in the 800 puts her at the head of the chase for Friis and Rebecca Adlington. Belmonte also continued her dominance of the short course pool with European titles in the 400m Free, 200m Fly, 200m IM and 400m IM. Had an outstanding year, marred only by her failure to medal in Shanghai.

50. Brent Hayden – 2011 Highlight – Winning silver behind James Magnussen in the 100m Free in Shanghai (47.95). 

It is hard to know what to make of Hayden’s year, having pre-qualified for Worlds he showed his true hand only once during 2011. He is the only man to have been sub-48 seconds in both 2010 and 2011, and that consistency makes him a dangerous player in an unpredictable race like the 100m Free.

49. Yannick Agnel – 2011 Highlight – His 3:43.85 in the 400m Free at French Nationals.

The swim back in March showed what might have been in Shanghai had he not fallen ill during a vital part of his training cycle. Despite the illness the young Frenchman was still able to break the 1:45 barrier in the 200m Free in Shanghai, which sets up a fascinating 2012 for Agnel.

Commonwealth Games Swimming Preview - Women's Medley

200m IM
1. Emily Seebohm - Beat Ariana Kukors in her own backyard at Pan Pacs. Only woman under 2:10 this year. Pretty sure thing for Gold in Delhi.
2. Hannah Miley - Outstanding swim in Budapest to take Bronze in 2:10.89
3. Julia Wilkinson - Fourth at Pan Pacs in 2:11.32

Wildcard
Anne Bochmann - Talented English swimmer Bochmann swam 2:13 last month to make the team.


400m IM
1. Hannah Miley - Her 4:33.09 in Budapest took Miley into a different league. Red hot favourite.
2. Samantha Hamill - Closest on paper to Miley this year, still almost 5 seconds adrift.
3. Blair Evans - 4:40.49 back in March.
3. Wendy Trott - Because Blair Evans isn't swimming the event.


Wildcard
Aimee Wilmott - Having a good 2010 so far. Excellent at GBR vs GER Duel and then also at British Nationals. Third place looks up for grabs in this race and Wilmott is certainly one of those in contention

European Junior Championships - Day Four

According to the BBC commentators at the end of tonight's session,

"This must be one of the best sessions Britain's ever had."

Perhaps I got too caught up in the competition and hyped the British team a little too much earlier today but I was left feeling a little flat. Possibly unfair given the fact that we're not fully rested and tapered for this meet, let me explain why...

Positives

- Hannah Miley - For me the best swim of the evening for the British team came from Hannah Miley in the 200m IM. Miley was by no means a lock for a medal here and to get down to 2:10.89 is fantastic.Steph Rice (AUS) will certainly not have it easy in both the 200 and 400m IM in Delhi.

- Liam Tancock - Despite nearly losing his 50m Back world record to Camille Lacourt, Tancock did a great job securing silver in a great non-tapered time of 24.70. Must be a little daunting to see just how fast Lacourt (24.07) is swimming, however Tancock is the type of guy that will use it for motivation.

- Number of medals - 5 medals in a session is an excellent result against top class, rested European swimmers. Certainly a sign of a British team cementing its position as a major force in European senior swimming.

- Reaction of the relay team after securing a bronze medal - I loved to see this. Whilst Adrian Moorhouse and Andy Jameson (BBC Commentators) were praising the women's relay team for a 'great' bronze medal, the girls themselves were disappointed and wanted more. The reactions after the race summed it up,

Becky Adlington - "It was a good, solid swim but we all expected a little bit more. If I was at my best we would have won that if I was on form, it's a bit gutting."

Hannah Miley - "I think when we sit down and look at this result we'll see the positives, it's not the end of the world and hopefully we can stick it to them next time."

Jaz Carlin - "I've been waiting around, this is my first swim so I was a bit anxious going in. I'm happy to come away with a bronze, we wanted a bit more but hopefully we'll be on the podium in London 2012."

Jo Jackson - "We're definitely a team effort, there were four of us in there. We want to do our best, we know we're better than the time we did but we're all in heavy training and to come away with a medal, we should be really proud of ourselves."

For me this is a great example of the old British Swimming mentality vs the new. In previous years we would have been happy just to get a medal but nowadays, particularly on some women's events, anything other than gold is disappointing. We're starting to adopt the same mentality of the USA and Australia where its no longer enough just to 'try your best'.

Negatives


- Times in the 100m Backstroke Final - Let me explain why Britain finishing first and second again in the women's backstroke is a negative. Doing the double is a fantastic acheivement and both Gemma Spofforth and Lizzie Simmonds should be delighted with their medals. The disappointing aspect of the race were the times the British girls did. Spofforth's 59.80 and Simmonds' 1:00.19 were both down on British Nationals. Fortunately they both get a chance to improve in Delhi where Emily Seebohm (59.21 this year) will be waiting for them.

- 800m Freestyle final - Becky Adlington seemed out of sorts tonight on the 800m Freestyle. Right from the start she didn't look her usual self in the water. Whether it was physical or mental, I'm certain that Adlington will get it right for Commonwealths. Three things I am taking away from this race  - Rebecca Adlington is still 2 seconds clear at the top of the world rankings this year. She is still the best female 800m Freestyle swimmer in the world. She will be ready for the Commonwealths.

- 800m Freestyle relay - This is an event we should have won and its great to see the four girls react the way they did. The Chinese, Australians and Americans will always produce great teams in this event and by London 2012 we need to get into the habit of winning relays. The quality we have is plain to see, we just need to learn to lift ourselves an extra percent or two like the Americans seem to be able to do on relays.  Unfortunately in Delhi, from a British perspective, the teams will be split up into England, Scotland and Wales.

European Swimming Championships - Preview Day 4

Apologies to all non-British readers, its Union Jack waving time at Speed Endurance. God save the Queen.

All fans of British swimming need to make sure they watch tonight's evening session of the European Swimming Championships as we could be in for a cracker.

- First up we have Dame Rebecca Adlington go in her favoured event, the 800m Freestyle. This will likely be Adlington's toughest test of 2010 as she goes up against last year's 800m Free world champion Lotte Friis as well as Federica Pellegrini (ITA), Olympic Champion in the 200m Free in Beijing and World Champion last year in the 200m and 400m Freestyle. Friis poses the most obvious threat as she has proven class in the 800m. Pellegrini on the other hand is some what of a wild-card over 800m but is currently the world's best over 200m and 400m Free.

Adlington is at a disadvantage as this competition isn't her main focus and whilst I'm sure Commonwealths are the main focus, I would not be surprised if Adlington has prepared more for this meet than some of the other British swimmers.

Reasons to be hopeful

• Nova Centurion team-mate Jessica Sylvester has been in pretty good form at this competition on the relays and individual events.

• Adlington's heat swim was solid, going out in a strong 4:11

• Adlington has already gotten the better of Friis once this year at the Barcelona leg of the Mare Nostrum tour. (8:21.25 to 8:23.76). In that race Friis set the pace with Adlington never letting her get more than a second away before taking over the race at the 600m mark.

- Hannah Miley has a real chance of picking up a second medal in the 200m IM final. Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and Camille Muffat (FRA) are the favourites for the top two positions. European Record holder Hosszu must still be hurting after her 400m IM defeat on home soil whilst Muffat has been one of the most impressive swimmers of 2010 so far, the French are also on fire in Budapest.

Miley will face further competition from Evelyn Verraszto (HUN) and Mireia Belmonte Garcia (ESP).

- Lizzie Simmonds and Gemma Spofforth could, and probably should, clinch a second British 1-2 in the 100m Backstroke.

Simmonds has been hugely impressive on her starts and turns and that could prove the difference against Spofforth. World Record holder Spofforth had a good 200m and swam a stunning 59.46 at British Nationals (0.03 second behind Simmonds) whilst still jet-lagged from a trans-atlantic flight.

Predicting the winner of this race is extremely tough. Gun to my head, I would go with Simmonds in 59-low.

- The British women's 4 x 200m Freestyle team will go into the race as strong favourites. The European record holders boast Rebecca Adlington, Jo Jackson (who looks like she is back to full fitness), Jazmin Carlin and Hannah Miley. However, the French team will push the Brits very hard. From the individual times posted this year, the French are slightly ahead of Britain. Britain's chances may rest on what sort of form Jo Jackson is in as she is a better swimmer than her 1:58.93 from this year indicates.

France

Muffat - 1:56.92
Balmy - 1:58.55
Cyrielle Etienne - 1:59.27
Farrell - 1:59.66
TOTAL - 7:54.40

Britain

Adlington - 1:57.87
Carlin - 1:58.51
Jackson - 1:58.93
Miley - 1:59.52
TOTAL - 7:54.83


Other competition will likely come from Hungary (Agnes Mutina, Katinka Hosszu, Eszter Dara, Evelyn Verraszto - combined time this year 7:56.82)

Strangely Italy, 4th at Worlds last year, haven't entered a team.



Coverage of tonight's swimming

Thursday 12 August
1500-1630, BBC Two/online
1600-1800, BBC Red Button/online
1555-1800, BBC 5 live sports extra

Thoughts from the European Championships - Day One

Day One of the European Championships is in the books and it could turn out to be the most dramatic day of the week long competition.

Much like US Nationals, you can find event by event recaps at various swimming sites (here, here and here for example). Instead I will focus on some of the bigger talking points.

Let the bullets fly...

- From a British perspective the highlight of Day One had to be Hannah Miley's incredible victory in the 400m IM. All eyes were on Hungarian (training with Dave Salo in California) Katinka Hosszu for the following reasons:- a) Hosszu is the third fastest swimmer of all-time in this event and until last night was ranked second in the world this year. b) Hosszu was tapered, Miley is apparently focusing on the Commonwealth Games this year. c) Hosszu was swimming infront of a home crowd and d) Training partner Marcus Rogan had tipped Hosszu to become the first swimmer post-suits to break a WR in yesterday's race.

Miley had other ideas and used a devastating breaststroke leg to overturn the sizable lead (1.36  seconds) that Hosszu held after 200m.This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Miley has been consistently fast this year and was in great form on the Mare Nostrum circuit.

Miley moves to second all-time in a textile suit (just 0.2 seconds behind Katie Hoff's 2007 WR) and notably has now been faster than European legend Yana Klochkova in textile.

Hoff TBT  - 29.83 - 1:03.91 - 1:39.49 - 2:14.10 - 2:51.50 - 3:29.68 - 4:01.64 -  4:32.89

Rice WR   - 28.66 - 1:01.47 - 1:36.17 - 2:09.83 - 2:48.12 -  3:27.25 -  3:58.92 -  4:29.45

Hosszu ER -28.45 - 1:01.61 - 1:36.05 - 2:09.29 - 2:48.77 - 3:28.81 - 3:59.95 - 4:30.31

Miley     - 30.04 - 1:03.50 - 1:38.65 - 2:13.05 - 2:51.50 - 3:30.42 - 4:02.33 - 4:33.09

Hosszu  - 29.07 - 1:01.97 - 1:37.32 - 2:11.69 - 2:51.32 - 3:32.21 - 4:04.30 - 4:36.43

TBT = Textile Best Time

- Incredibly, France managed to lose another 4 x 100m Freestyle relay, despite entering the event with their swimmers dominating the world rankings. Surely it is now time to move Alain Bernard to a less-pressured position on the relay, to swim 0.4 seconds slower than your best time WITH a rolling start is not good enough. He performed well in Rome last year swimming the second leg but has now under performed on the last leg in Beijing and now Budapest (maybe it only happens at cities beginning with 'B'?).

Take nothing away from the Russians. The victory was built on Evgeny Lagunov's stunning, world leading 48.23 (Lagunov is suddenly a very real threat to take gold on the individual as well as two sub-48 second legs from Nikita Lobintsev and Danila Isotov.

Shocking stat no.1- The French B team (3:13.12) swam faster in the morning heats than the A team did in the finals (3:13.29).

Shocking stat no.2 - 200m Freestyle rivals Paul Biedermann and Danila Isotov had differing fortunes in the relay. Isotov had the fastest split of the entire race (47.87) whilst Biedermann (49.06) was 16th fastest. If anyone is under the impression that Biedermann will have it easy on the 200m Free because of Yannick Agnel's absence, they need to re-evaluate immediately.

(Hat tip to David 'Swim Geekatov' Rieder who has been championing the Russian freestylers for some time, although did pick France to win this race.)

- You know its been a good night of swimming when an 18-year old, competing at his first senior competition, beats the reigning world champion and world record holder... and its only the third biggest story of the night. Yannick Agnel continued his rapid ascent of world swimming by winning his only individual event of the Europeans. Agnel's 4:46.17 moves him to third in the world this year with Biedermann moving to fourth with his 3:46.30.

Watching the race it looked like Biedermann got his tactics slightly wrong. He tried to use his usual tactics of waiting until 300m before putting the hammer down on the final 100m, by doing this he underestimated Agnel's speed and stamina. Agnel and Biedermann have both been 48.80 this year and he took too big a risk by trying and beat Agnel for speed at the end of the race.

Swimsportnews.de had earlier commented on this blog about Biedermann and the 400m Free this year and looking back at those comments are telling. After a disappointing swim at German nationals Biedermann in the heat of the moment mentioned that he might consider pulling out of the 400m Free at Europeans, the question of race tactics and organisation was also brought back in early July. As Swimsportnews also mentioned Biedermann's main event has now clearly become the 200m Free. Biedermann will have his work cut out against Danila Isotov who is looking like he got his taper exactly right.

- Camille Lacourt and Alexander Dale-Oen posted incredible times in the semi finals of the 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke respectively.

Lacourt has been extremely consistent this year and had a number of 53 second swims. However, 52.58 took him to a new level. Liam Tancock's 52.85 from British Nationals had looked like it could last a long time at the top of the world rankings, especially after the efforts of the US men last week. However, Lacourt blew that time away setting a new textile best mark in the process (8th fastest swimmer of all-time). Aaron Peirsol's 51.94 suddenly doesn't seem as untouchable as it once did.

Dale-Oen also launched himself to a new level. His time of 59.29 just missed Brendan Hansen's textile best time of 59.13. Dale-Oen turned in a rapid 27.66 (0.01 under Brenton Rickard's WR split) and he kept his form to the finish. Dale-Oen's time was the 25th fastest of all-time (he had previously been 59.16 and 59.20 at the Beijing Olympics). He acheived the same impressive feat that Lacourt managed.... He made the high-tech suit WR of 58.58 suddenly look a lot more acheivable in the near future. Something the swimming world needed.

Mare Nostrum - Monaco - Day One

Performance of the day

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.

Results can be found here.

Live Video will be shown here (speed_endurance exclusive)

Live updates from Twitter.

Irish Nationals

Irish Nationals (29 April - 2 May) will have an interesting feel to them this year. The Irish swimmers will have the company of the National Club Swimming Association (NCSA) All-Star Team from the US. This team consists of some of US Swimming's top 15-18 year olds and was selected based on results from the NCSA Junior National Championships (held March 16-27 this year). The US Juniors feature consistently in the top 5 of most events and should offer some excellent competition for the home swimmers whilst gaining valuable international experience themselves. With 2 years to go before London 2012 we may get a preview of some future Team USA members swimming here in Ireland.

Ireland's own European Junior Champion and rising star Grainne Murphy is down to swim 100m Fly and 200m Back. Barry Murphy, who swims in the US for Tennessee, will be competing in the 50m Breast, 100m Breast and 50m Free.

Some top names from British Swimming will also be attending. Hannah Miley, Andy Hunter, Lucy Ellis, Georgia Davis and Jak Scott are all down to compete.

Psych Sheet can be found here.

Live Results can be found here.