Swim stars promise to return to Bergen Swim Festival

Winners of the best performance awards at Bergen Swim Festival: Rikke Møller Pedersen (DEN), Daniel Gyurta (HUN), Katinka Hosszu (HUN), Cameron van der Burgh (RSA), Michael Jamieson (GBR), Jeanette Ottesen (DEN).
(Photo: Kjell Eirik Irgens Henanger, BSF)

The Bergen Swim Festival was particularly star studded this year, due to it being the Alexander Dale Oen memorial.

A short course meet in late april is not ideal, but the swim stars were unanimous: They want to come back to Bergen.

Whether or not they were influenced by the emphatic crowd in the old pool that facilitates the BSF is hard to say, but most of the stars expressed a desire to return the next time the competition is arranged - even if by then it will not be a memorial meet.

The meet, established in 2007, will make the highly anticipated transition into a long course meet during the next year or so, as the City of Bergen (approx. 250.000 inhabitants) gets its first long course pool.

"Its not ideal with a short course meet now, as it is long course season basically" said Katinka Hosszu who used the meet as an intense training session swimming all 15 events - prelims and finals.

"When they get the long course pool here, this will be an ideal preparation for the upcoming summer-championship," said frequent guest Cameron van der Burgh swimming his fourth Bergen Swim Festival.

Photo: Kjell Eirik Irgens Henanger

Alexander Dale Oen will probably be close to the action although the meet will no longer bear his name. Whispers about the pool bearing Norways first, and only, long course world champions name are getting stronger.

This year, as it normally is at BSF, the mens 100 meters breaststroke was the main attraction. Cameron van der Burgh won in a meet record of 57,82, ahead of Daniel Gyurta.

"It was a tough and emotional race for me, but its nice to get a chance to honor Alexander by racing guys like Daniel Gyurta and Michael Jamieson. Not so much competing with them, but racing together in Alex's spirit", said van der Burgh immideately after the race.

See Norwegian TV 2s interview with him directly after the final here.


One of the things that makes the meet attractive is the Festival's festive setting for the finals session. With the pool being brought to complete darkness a smoke, and light show is put on while an announcer presents the swimmers. At the same time the public goes mad. This is what attracts the swimmers.

"Stefan Nystrand once said to me that noone else makes meets like these ones" said international liaison Jan Allers.

He confirmed that most international competitors had signaled a desire to return to the meet.

"Its not often you get to feel like a boxer preparing for a swim. It makes it a bit more exciting", said van der Burgh.

The meet organizers have lofty ambitions for the meet as they enter into the brand new national arena.

"We want to put Bergen on the international swimming map. In the long term we want it to be the biggest swim meet in Europe" said head of the organizing comittee Gjert Dahl.

A total of 19 meet records were set during the three days of competition. In addition Estonian backstroker Ralf Tribuntsov set three national records. One in the 50 backstroke (24,33) and two on the double distance (52,33 and 51,97).

Katinka Hosszu kicks off Bergen Swim Festival with two meet records

 Katinka Hosszu at Bergen Swim Festival. Photo: Kjell Erik Irgens Henanger

Katinka Hosszu impressed the audience setting two meet records during day one of the Bergen Swim Festival - Alexander Dale Oen memorial in Bergen, Norway. The competition is being swum in short course metres.

Despite it being prelims, and the fact she led both events by a country mile, the Hungarian swim princess went at it with all guns blazing setting a meet record in the 100 meters breaststroke (1:08.98) and the 200 meter freestyle (1:55.35).

She also qualified first for the 50 meters freestyle and the 100 meters backstroke finals, while she was second in the sprint butterfly behind Jeanette Ottesen. Hosszu is going to swim all 15 events this meet, and you would forgive her if she did not go all-out in all races.

Undoubtedly the danish breaststroke ace Rikke Møller Pedersen will give Hosszu more of a fight in the breaststroke final tomorrow. Pedersen's 1:10 Friday effort did not look too hard on her.....

Alexander Dale Oen Memorial.
Photo: Kjell Erik Irgens Henanger

In other races the favourites all qualified for the mens 100 meters breaststroke-event which will be the highlight of the meet in terms of quality across the field. Martti Ajland (EST) with the best time in the first session 1.00,77, narrowly edging Cameron van der Burgh. Also in that field: Daniel Gyurta, Michael Jamieson and Andrew Willis.

"I think I can do a 57 in the final", says van der Burgh who left the South-African Championships to participate in the memorial meet.

The best Norwegian finished tenth in the prelims, an event in which Norway is suffering in after losing Alexander Dale Oen, and Aleksander Hetland going into retirement.

The meet features some swimmers, like Hosszu and the breaststrokers, which really shows Norwegian swimmers where the international level is. It's quite a stretch for some.

See all results and livetiming at livetiming.no.

The meet continues at 8 AM GMT Saturday with finals commencing at 4 PM GMT.

Several media reports leading up to the meet has been focusing on the swim stars, and the breaststrokers in particular, and their relationships with Alexander Dale Oen.

TV 2 made a story from when Cameron van der Burgh visited Dale Oens grave. 

They also made a clip from when van der Burgh, Daniel Gyurta and Michael Jamieson visited their studio.

Olympic breaststroke champions to Norway in memory of Alexander Dale Oen

Daniel Gyurta and Cameron van der Burgh have both signaled to the organizers of Bergen Swim Festival that they intend to travel to Norway's second largest city in order to compete at the event held in mid-April.

The Bergen Swim Festival, BSF for short, is an annual event held at old Sentralbadet - a 25 meter pool opened in 1960. The meet, which had its first edition in 2007, has gathered quite a reputation in most Scandinavian countries, due to its nice prize money and also it's modern outlook. It's meant to have a more party-like feel to it, than most swim meets, normally.

Last year the meet was planned for the 4th-6th of May, just a few days after the death of Alexander Dale Oen. It got cancelled, but this year it is back on the schedule with the full name Bergen Swim Festival - Alexander Dale Oen Memorial.

The meet has attracted Nordic Swim stars as Jeanette Ottesen and Stefan Nystrand in the past, in addition to international swimmers like Oleg Lisogor, Cameron van der Burgh and Aschwin Wildeboer.

This year van der Burgh returns to the city where he once trained with his friend Alexander Dale Oen. Where he got hammered in training by Alexander Dale Oen. After his Olympic Gold he dedicated the medal to the Norwegian.

 This year he is joined by Daniel Gyurta, the 200-meter champion from London who said that he wanted to present Dale Oens family with a replica of his Olympic Gold Medal, saying the Norwegian deserved it.

According to the largest newspaper in the country, VG, Dale Oens family will be presented with the replica at "Idrettsgallaen" (Norwegian Sport Awards) on the 12th of January. Some part of the ceremony will serve as a remembrance for the swimming ace.

Now they both are coming to Bergen in memory and honour of the Shanghai World Champion.

The organizers make no attempt in hiding that the factor of Norway's greatest ever swimmer has a lot of bearing in the decisions of the swim stars to swim in Bergen.

– Of course, Alexanders personality and their connection to him is what matters the most when they decide to come to Norway, says BSFs international liaison Jan Allers to Norwegian TV 2.

They are however joined by a team of strong Danes. All of the locally based danish swimmers will make the trip to Norway, including three of the four World Champions from the 4x100 medley relay in Istanbul. The Danes have been regular visitors to the meet, although awkwardly placed for a short course-meet.

The organizers are hoping this years meet will set a standard for the meet to be at for the forthcoming years, where they will make the transition into a 50 meter pool.

– In the long term we want Bergen Swim Festival to be a big international swim meet, but the conditions will improve once we have the new pool ready, says leader of the organizing committee Gjert Dahl.

Next year the new national center for Swimming and Diving (pictured) will be finished in Bergen, with a state of the art 50 meter pool as the main focal point. The city of 250.000 people have no 50 meter pool as of yet, and strong forces are advocating for it to be named after the deceased Dale Oen. The organizers of BSF hope to have it operating for the 2014 edition of the meet.

This year however the main attraction will be, as it always has been, the 100 meter breaststroke for men. Alexander Dale Oen vs. Cameron van der Burgh vs. Oleg Lisogor were thrillers in the past. For this edition it will be a lot more subdued and undoubtedly a strange feeling for those involved, but still with high quality swimmers in the pool.

– It will be the roughest, hardest and most emotional race of the whole meet. We will try to make a frame around it worthy of the occasion, says Dahl.

If you want to read more about Bergen Swim Festival - Alexander Dale Oen Memorial, you can visit their homepage: http://www.bsf.no/en

Top 50 Swimmers of 2012 - 20 to 11

The second annual Speed Endurance Top 50 Swimmers of the Year is upon us. There is no set-in-stone criteria, but as you would expect, this year the Olympic Games carried the most weight in the decision making process. Other outstanding achievements away from London were also acknowledged, but it took an extraordinary feat to better an Olympic medallist. Also worth noting, relay medals alone were not valued highly, however race-changing relay contributions were.

We're reaching the business end of the list. The fourth instalment takes us from 20 to 11...

20. Florent Manaudou - 2012 Highlight - Stunning victory in the 50 freestyle in London, setting a new textile best time in the process

There were a number of potential likely outcomes prior to the 50 free final, France's Florent Manaudou winning was not one widely shared in the swimming community. Manaudou swam a 22.0 heat and a 21.8 semi to rank 6th going in to the final. From lane 7 the Frenchman was faultless throughout the race winning in 21.34, breaking Fred Bousquet's textile best time by 0.02. The gap between Manaudou and silver medalist Cullen Jones of 0.20 seconds was the biggest winning margin since Matt Biondi in 1988. Manaudou had a strong SC season, but did lose out to Vlad Morozov in Istanbul. Cesar Cielo also finished the year ranked second, just 0.04 seconds behind Manaudou's time. All of that means the 50 free in Barcelona will be electric.

19. Jiao Liuyang - 2012 Highlight - Crushing the field on the final length of the 200 butterfly final in London, setting a new Olympic record and textile best time.

At Worlds in 2011 Jiao Liuyang led for the entire race and finished with a 33.40 final split. Despite the victory, she nearly lost the race to a fast charging Ellen Gandy. The Chinese flyer clearly learnt her lesson in London. On the way to her 2:04.06 winning time, Jiao Liuyang unleashed a stunning 31.31 homecoming split. The closest anyone came to that closing speed was USA's Camille Adams (5th) who closed in a 32.23.
She was utterly dominant in her 200 fly final in London, but was narrowly beaten by Katinka Hosszu in Istanbul in the 200 fly.

18. Nathan Adrian - 2012 Highlight - Being on the golden side of a 0.01 margin of victory in the 100 freestyle.

Nathan Adrian delivered on the biggest stage of all, taking down the odds-on favourite James Magnussen not once, but twice. Firstly Adrian gave the US 4x100 free relay a good platform for victory with the only sub-48 second lead-off leg, crucially finishing ahead of Magnussen. The fact that the team did not deliver the gold was no reflection on Adrian's contribution. The 100 freestyle final would be his defining moment of the Games, and is a definite candidate for race of the year. Adrian lost the lead to his Australian rival with 15m to go, but at the exact moment sprinters normally suffer, Adrian managed to find a second wind to overhaul Magnussen on the touch (albeit after a poor finish from Magnussen). His final contribution was a stunning 46.85 relay split on the 4x100 medley relay. The one knock on Adrian that holds him back from being higher in the list is that Magnussen's 47.10 still ranks considerably faster than Adrian's 47.52 at year's end.

17. Ruta Meilutyte - 2012 Highlight - Winning a shock Olympic gold in the 100 breaststroke as a 15 year old

Meilutyte broke into the swimming world's collective consciousness after leading all qualifiers after the heats of the 100 breaststroke. After improving her time again in the semi-finals down to 1:05.21, expectations started to sky rocket. Despite all the pressure, she delivered Lithuania their first ever swimming gold medal as an independent nation as she held off the late challenge of Rebecca Soni. The follow up to Meilutyte's display in London came at World SC in Istanbul. Winning the 50 breast & 100 breast double in European records as well as a silver in the 100 IM, the youngster confirmed her status as one of swimming's new superstars.

16. Allison Schmitt - 2012 Highlight - Blowing away her opposition to win the 200 freestyle in London by nearly 2 seconds in a textile best time of 1:53.61

Allison Schmitt's winning margin of 1.97 seconds in the 200 free was bigger than Rebecca Soni's 200 breast victory, it was also bigger than Missy Franklin's 200 back gap to silver. In fact, it was a bigger margin of victory than all other 200m events in London (men and women). Federica Pellegrini's 200 free world record of 1:52.98 now looks like a tantalizing target for Schmitt in Barcelona. Schmitt's medal haul didn't stop at the 200 free either. She pushed Camille Muffat all the way in the 400 freestyle before ending up with the silver medal. She also overhauled Alicia Coutts and Australia on the anchor leg of the US 4x200 free relay gold medal team and swam the freestyle leg of the world record setting US 4x100 medley team and anchored the US bronze medal winning 4x100 free relay. Despite not being in top form in Istanbul, she won the world SC title in the 200 free comfortably, although Camille Muffat had been 2 seconds faster a month before.

15. Katie Ledecky - 2012 Highlight - Winning the Olympic 800 freestyle title in the second fastest time ever.

Ledecky and Ruta Meilutyte were born two days apart on separate sides of the world, but together the two 15 year olds turned the swimming world on its head in London. Ledecky first came to prominence at the US trials in Omaha. After narrowly missing out on a place in the 400 free, she won the 800 free in 8:19.78. That was the warning sign of what was to come in London. In the Olympic 800 final the American used the time honoured race tactic of 'breaking the field', splitting 4:04.3 at 400m she built an unassailable lead over a final that included Rebecca Adlington, Lotte Friis and Mireia Belmonte Garcia. Ledecky was under WR pace at 750m and eventually ended up with gold and the second fastest time ever (breaking Janet Evans' 23 year old American record). If this list was based on just one race, Ledecky would find herself higher than 15. Had she qualified for (and made waves in) the 400 free and/or broken the 800 free world record she might have been looking at a Top 5 spot.

14. Matt Grevers - 2012 Highlight - Annihilating the field in the 100 backstroke final in London to win in 52.16

What a year 2012 has been for Grevers. Video of his proposal to Annie Chandler went viral (and she accepted), he came within 0.14 seconds of Aaron Peirsol's 100 back world record at US trials, became Olympic champion winning by 0.76 seconds and finished the year as world SC champion in the 100 back. This is the same man that missed out on a place on the 2011 USA Worlds team in Shanghai. From a neutral perspective we can only hope that Camille Lacourt is back to his 52.11 form from 2010 when the two men meet again in Barcelona, Peirsol's world record is on borrowed time.

13. Daniel Gyurta - 2012 Highlight - Winning Olympic 200 breaststroke gold in a new world record of 2:07.28

How is Gyurta still only 23 years old? The Hungarian picked up his first Olympic gold medal, 8 years after winning silver in Athens as a 15 year old. He also set a new world record in the process, having just enough strength to hold off Michael Jamieson in the last 5 metres. He also narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100 breast by 0.04 seconds. Then, just a month after London he saw his world record taken away from him by Akihiro Yamaguchi. Its not often an Olympic champion who breaks the world record ends the year ranked no. 2. Gyurta regained the upper hand in Istanbul when he took down a loaded 200 breast final that included Jamieson and Yamaguchi.

12. Ryan Lochte - 2012 Highlight - Dominating the 400 IM final, winning by 3.68 seconds.

A spot outside the Top 10 will not please the army of Lochte fans, but the heir apparent to Michael Phelps underperformed in London. His highlight, the 400 IM, came on day 1 and thereafter Lochte's performances seemed to drop off.  He lost out to Tyler Clary and Ryosuke Irie in the 200 back, and didn't medal in the 200 free. He finished behind Phelps in the 200 IM and then could only watch as Yannick Agnel swept past him in the 4x100 free relay to snatch gold away from the USA. He did have some level of redemption in the 4x200 relay with a strong 1:45.15 lead off leg. The Florida man might have slipped further down the list had it not been for his starring role at the World SC Championships. His two world records, three individual titles and three relay golds reaffirmed his status as the best SC swimmer in the world. Next year I fully expect Lochte to be back in the Top 5, although there are some chinks appearing in his armour.

11. Chad le Clos - 2012 Highlight - Beating the unbeatable Michael Phelps in his pet event, the 200 butterfly

Talking of heir apparent to Michael Phelps, Chad le Clos might just be it. Le Clos has emerged as a superstar of swimming (with the obligatory legion of female fans). Le Clos did not set any new world records, or textile best times in London, but his 200 butterfly victory was such an incredible achievement that he gets this lofty place ahead of other record breakers. His 100 fly silver showed his developing speed, which was even more evident in Istanbul as he got within striking distance of the 100 fly world record. Had he taken part in the 200 fly, there is a good chance we could have seen a new 200 fly world record. The real test of whether le Clos has made the jump to the next level of stardom will be seen in 2013 by how many other swimmers start wearing goggles around their neck.


Top 50 so far...

50. Brendan Hansen
49. Oussama Mellouli
48. Yulia Efimova
47. Aya Terakawa
46. Cesar Cielo
45. Yevgeny Korotyshkin
44. Katinka Hosszu
43. Melanie Schlanger
42. Lu Ying
41. Vladimir Morozov
40. Nick Thoman
39. Thiago Pereira
38. Cullen Jones
37. Ryan Cochrane
36. Takeshi Matsuda
35. Christian Sprenger
34. Anastasia Zueva
33. Rebecca Adlington
32. Elizabeth Beisel
31. Ryosuke Irie
30. Satomi Suzuki
29. Alicia Coutts
28. Park Tae-Hwan
27. Emily Seebohm
26. Mireia Belmonte Garcia
25. Michael Jamieson
24. Aliaksandra Herasimenia
23. Akihiro Yamaguchi
22. James Magnussen
21. Tyler Clary
20. Florent Manaudou
19. Jiao Liuyang
18. Nathan Adrian
17. Ruta Meilutyte
16. Allison Schmitt
15. Katie Ledecky
14. Matt Grevers
13. Daniel Gyurta
12. Ryan Lochte
11. Chad le Clos

Top 51 Swimmers of 2011 - 21 to 11

As another year of great swimming comes to a close, here is a rundown of the Top 51 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.


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


Here is the rundown from 21 to 11.

21. Zhao Jing – 2011 Highlight – Winning one of the most exciting races at Worlds, the 100m Back, in 59.05

Zhao Jing produced her best swim of the year at exactly the right time. She added the world title to her Asian Games gold from 2010 and has topped the world rankings in each of the last two years. She beat Zueva by the slimmest of margins, but goes into 2012 with a great couple of years behind her. The world now waits to see the impact Missy Franklin will have on the event.

20. Daniel Gyurta – 2011 Highlight – Making up a deficit of half a second on the last 50m to win the 200m Breast in Shanghai (2:08.41)

Gyurta once again was under the radar for most of the year before producing the goods when it mattered the most. Trailing Kosuke Kitajima at 150m, he used his trademark strong finish to win gold. He ended the year with a textile best time and 3rd fastest swim in history in the short course 200m Breast (2:02.37) at Euro SC. He couldn’t produce the same time a week later when he raced Brendan Hansen at Duel in the Pool, but that doesn’t change how strong a year Gyurta had.

19. Jiao Liuyang – 2011 Highlight – Hanging on to win the 200m Fly in Shanghai in a time of 2:05.55, with a winning margin of just 0.04

Jiao Liuyang was involved in the two best 200m Fly races of 2011. At Chinese Nationals she finished second in an incredible time of 2:04.44, just 0.04 behind Liu Zige. However, Jiao Liuyang turned the tables on her team mate in Shanghai winning the world title with Liu Zige back in 3rd. As we enter the Olympic year, the Chinese-British battle for the 200m Fly title should be great. After a dominant 2010 and a world title in 2011, the favourite at this stage has to be Jiao Liuyang.

Thoughts from European Swimming Championships - Day Three

Day Three didn't provide quite the same excitement as Day One and Day Two had, however they were hard acts to follow. That's not to say the night was short on action, time to run through the main talking points:-

- From a personal point of view I was looking forward to the men's 200m Free above all the other races at Europeans. Frankly, I was a little underwhelmed by tonight's final.

I really thought Biedermann would swim faster than he did. Not an unreasonable expectation given the fact that he swam 0.2 seconds faster at German Nationals. Biedermann seems to react best when the competition is fierce and he just didn't have that big of a challenge tonight. The man who should have posed the biggest challenge, Danila Izotov, seemed like he was on top form after his relay heroics on Monday but just didn't show up for the final.

There are a lot of people that will jump on this swim (and his 400m Free) and highlight how much slower he is this year without his suit. Unfortunately for Biedermann, because he beat Michael Phelps wearing a techsuit (100% legal remember), he has become the poster boy for the suit era. He must be tired of answering questions on how this year is different to last. To answer his skeptics he really needs to do one or all of these three points:-

1.) Finish the year on top of the world rankings (looking unlikely now)

2.) Get down into 1:44 territory and get close to Phelps and Thorpe's best textile times. Phelps' best textile time (wearing a textile suit that covered his chest and legs) was 1:43.86, whilst Thorpe's was 1:44.06 (wearing his trademark full body suit).

3.) Win the World Championships again in 2011.

- The race that needs to happen in Budapest is a rematch of the 400m Free Final over 200m. Yannick Agnel vs Paul Biedermann. Hopefully the German and French teams give the fans what they want and put both men on the first leg of the 4 x 200m Free relay. (Knowing the French selection policy, Agnel will probably be dropped from the relay as he didn't do his victory lap of honour quickly enough on Monday evening.)


- Fran Halsall showed that she has made a significant step-up in world swimming by winning the 100m Freestyle final tonight despite not being fully tapered. It was the type of performance that showed real racing quality.

53.58 moves her to second in the world this year and is just 0.28 seconds off Britta Steffen's textile best time. Assuming everything goes to plan in Delhi we could certainly see Steffen's mark go and could even see the first woman under 53 seconds in a textile suit.

- Whilst Britain celebrates its third Gold medal, spare a thought for Ranomi Kromowidjojo. The Dutch sprinter had been one of the revelations of 2010 and her 53.44 effort back in March still leads the world rankings. Had Kromowidjojo not been struck down with illness just weeks before the competition started we may have been talking about a historic swim from the talented Dutch freestyler. Kromowidjojo's time will come and she will likely be a formidable force next year at World's and in London in two years time.

- Watch out for Daniel Gyurta tomorrow in the 200m Breaststroke final. There looked to be a lot more in the tank after his semi-final effort of 2:10.11. Brendan Hansen's textile best time of 2:08.50 could well be within Gyurta's reach in front of a home crowd.

- Another day, another stunning swim from Camille Lacourt. This time he raced to the top of the world rankings and took down his second textile best mark in the 50m Back. His semi final time of 24.30 moves him ahead of Liam Tancock's effort of 24.52 from earlier this year. Tancock's WR sits a little uneasily at 24.04. For more insight into Lacourt's progression over the last few years check out David Rieder's profile of the Frenchman.