Filippo Magnini Gets Beaten By A Dolphin... Lets Down Swimmers Everywhere

It's been a pretty quiet few weeks for Filippo Magnini since Shanghai. He's just had the usual "getting caught hooking up with Federica Pellegrini, relationship destroying, friendship destroying love triangle tabloid feeding frenzy" couple of weeks.

Today Magnini had a chance to redeem himself as he represented all of mankind in a race against two dolphins. When I heard about the race, my first thought was that it was clearly unfair. I mean sure, dolphins have talent, but from what I've seen they are lazy... they don't put the work in, they splash about during training just doing flips all day long, plus they are all about "garbage yardage". Swimming has moved on, its all about cross training now... just no way Magnini loses this race.

Well, Magnini lost




Not only did he lose, he got lapped. Good job Filippo, way to represent swimmers all over the world.

PS. Is it just me, or does Ryan Lochte not lose this race?

A Speed_Endurance Exclusive Start List for 4e OPEN EDF de Natation 2010 - Paris Open & Preview

This year's Paris Open has turned into one of the most anticipated meets of 2010. The lack of a major global competition this year means that this meet represents one of the few chances to see some of the world's best compete head-to-head in LC metres. This is no more apparent than in the men's sprint events.

The event organisers deserve a Toulouse-Lautrec sized 'chapeau' for their ability to draw the world's top male sprinters. Competing this weekend are the French contingent of Fred Bousquet, Alain Bernard, Yannick Agnel and Fabien Gilot, Brazil's sprint sensation Cesar Cielo, South Africa's Roland Schoeman, Trinidad's George Bovell, Italy's Filippo Magnini, Poland's up and coming sprinter Konrad Czerniak and most impressively the American duo of Nathan Adrian and.... wait for it..... Michael Phelps.

Phelps is set to compete in the 100m Free, 200m Free, 200m Butterfly and 200m IM. Whilst it is exciting to see swimming's biggest star race each and every time, especially on foreign soil, it's his decision to go up against the world's best in the 100m Freestyle that is perhaps the biggest talking point. Phelps will have to produce something very special to get the better of the swimmers listed above, especially given his relatively (by Phelps' high standards) slow start to 2010.

The women's events see the French going up a small but strong Dutch, British and American contingent. Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Hinkelien Schreuder head up Holland's challenge with Elizabeth Simmonds and Francesca Halsall representing Britain's interest. The US women include Allison Schmitt, Felicia Lee and Elizabeth Pelton with more international star power being added by Sweden's Therese Alshammar, Romania's Camelia Potec and Serbia's Nadia Higl.

The French will be looking to Camille Muffat, Coralie Balmy, Alexianne Castel and Aurore Mongel to fend off their international challengers.

Start List here (speed_endurance exclusive)

Results will appear here

Predictions

Women

Women

50m Free

1. Ranomi Kromowidjojo
2. Hinkelien Schreuder
3. Femke Heemskerk

100m Free

1. Ranomi Kromowidjojo
2. Francesca Hansall
3. Femke Heemskerk

200m Free

1. Camille Muffat
2. Femke Heemskerk
3. Allison Schmitt

400m Free

1. Camille Muffat
2. Coralie Balmy
3. Allison Schmitt

800m Free

1. Camelia Potec
2. Grainne Murphy
3. Nuala Murphy

50m Back

1. Elizabeth Simmonds
2. Theodora Drakou
3. Alexianne Castel

100m Back

1. Elizabeth Simmonds
2. Alexianne Castel
3. Elizabeth Pelton

200m Back

1. Elizabeth Simmonds
2. Elizabeth Pelton
3. Alexianne Castel

50m Breast

1. Moniek Nijhuis
2. Maria Michalaka
3. Kate Haywood

100m Breast

1. Nadja Higl
2. Moniek Nijhuis
3. Maria Michalaka

200m Breast

1. Nadja Higl
2. Alena Alexeeva
3. Fanny Babou

50m Fly

1. Therese Alshammar
2. Francesca Halsall
3. Melanie Henique

100m Fly

1. Francesca Halsall
2. Aurore Mongel
3. Kim Vanderberg

200m Fly

1. Aurore Mongel
2. Lara Grangeon
3. Francesca Segat

200m IM

1. Camille Muffat
2. Lara Grangeon
3. Francesca Segat

400m IM

1. Grainne Murphy
2. Lara Grangeon
3. Francesca Segat

Predictions

Men

50m Free

1. Fred Bousquet
2. Cesar Cielo
3. Alain Bernard

100m Free

1. Alain Bernard
2. Cesar Cielo
3. Michael Phelps

200m Free

1. Michael Phelps
2. Yannick Agnel (Phelps v Agnel is the race I want to see above all others)
3. Sebastaian Verschuren

400m Free

1. Sebastien Rouault
2. Federico Colbertaldo
3. Massimiliano Rosolino

1500m Free

1. Sebastien Rouault
2. Federico Colbertaldo
3. Anthony Pannier

50m Back

1. Liam Tancock
2. Camille Lacourt
3. Randall Bal

100m Back

1. Liam Tancock
2. Camille Lacourt
3. Jeremy Stravius

200m Back

1. Eric Ress
2. Nick Driebergen
3. Aristeidis Grigoriadis

50m Breast

1. Lennart Stekelenburg
2. Fabio Scozzoli
3. Alessandro Terrin

100m Breast

1. Hugues Duboscq
2. Alexander Dale Oen
3. Fabio Scozzoli

200m Breast

1. Hugues Duboscq
2. Scott Spann
3. Alexander Dale Oen

50m Fly

1. Fred Bousquet
2. Roland Schoeman
3. Konrad Czerniak

100m Fly

1. Konrad Czerniak
2. Joeri Verlinden
3. Albert Subirats

200m Fly

1. Michael Phelps
2. Dinko Jukic
3. Stefanos Dimitriadis

200m IM

1. Michael Phelps
2. Dinko Jukic
3. Todd Patrick

400m IM

1. Dinko Jukic
2. Sebastien Rouault
3. Anthony Pannier