Thoughts from Pan Pacs Swimming - Day Three and Day Four

The final two days at Pan Pacs provided a number of highlights, here are just a few...

- Ryan Lochte joined Camille Lacourt in the exclusive club of male swimmer's who have given world records a real scare this year.

Lochte's time of 1:54.43 for the 200m IM is third on the all-time list behind his own world record from last year (1:54.10) and Michael Phelps' Beijing winning time (1:54.23). Lochte now owns six of the top ten swims all-time over 200m IM, Phelps has three, Laszlo Cseh one. I think we can now say Lochte is the best in the world over 200m IM.

Phelps will be back, you know that being number two domestically is going to hurt him, but at this stage... asssuming both men are 100% fit and ready at London 2012, who wins the 200m IM? Leave a comment below with your answer.

Where I am at... My heart says Lochte, my head says Phelps.

- Rebecca Soni's 2:20.69 was the second swim of Day 4 that rattled a world record. Going into the meet there had been a fair amount of hype surrounding Soni breaking Annamay Pierse's global standard. Unfortunately for Soni she came up half a second short.

In terms of the swim itself, Soni didn't have the best of starts, although that usually isn't the strongest part of her race and was 0.33 seconds down at the 50m mark, 0.30 down at 100m, 0.49 down at 150m and finished up 0.57 seconds down on the WR at the finish.

It's a fantastic swim in a textile suit but interestingly (and I'm sure frustratingly for Soni) she did not get past Leisel Jones' best textile time of 2:20.54 set in 2006.

There's no doubt Soni has the talent to break 2:20, she has been close to it all-year. Still... 1:04.9 in the 100m, 2:20.6 on the 200m and proving herself as the undisputed best female breaststroker in the world represents a great Pan Pacs for Rebecca Soni.

- So Michael Phelps is the fastest 100m Freestyler in the world. That's something I did not expect. Its not like we're early in the season either, all the main players (with the possible exception of Eamon Sullivan) have shown their strongest hand and Phelps beat them all. Here's a list of names Phelps is faster than in 2010. Cesar Cielo. Alain Bernard. Brent Hayden. Fabien Gilot. Eamon Sullivan. Nathan Adrian. Jason Lezak.

Much has been made of Phelps' lack of fitness, including what amounts to being thrown under the bus by Bob Bowman in this Washington Post article. I don't see Pan Pacs as a bad meet for Phelps at all, quite the opposite. I believe we've seen what direction he will now take on his journey towards 2012. He swum the 400m IM and didn't get out of the heats. He swam the lead-off leg of the 100m Free and shot to the top of the world rankings. I didn't think Phelps could win gold in the 100m Free at Olympics, I felt the size and speed of Bernard, Cielo, Adrian etc. would be too much to overcome.... but that all changed when he went 48.13 on that lead-off leg of the relay. Now, 48.13 will not win gold in London, but if Phelps can get down to Pieter VDH's textile best time of 47.84 things will start to get very interesting.

Shot in the dark on 2012 Olympic Schedule for Phelps (depending on the scheduling of events)

100m Freestyle
100m Butterfly
200m Freestyle
200m Butterfly
200m IM
4 x 100m Medley Relay
4 x 100m Free Relay
4 x 200m Free Relay

= 8 Events

- Emily Seebohm became the first clean athlete to break 2:10 in a textile suit. Wu Yanyan had swum 2:09.72 back in 1997 before a later positive doping test. Turning level with Ariana Kukors at 150m, Seebohm proved to have the strongest freestyle leg to win in 2:09.93 to Kukors' 2:10.25.

Seebohm, 18, winner of the 100m Back and 200m IM and silver medallist in the 50m Fly and 100m Free, isn't too far away from becoming one of swimming's biggest stars on the women's side.

- I told myself earlier this year never to write off Kosuke Kitajima. Never. In any Breaststroke event. Guess what... I wrote him off on the 200m Breaststroke at Pan Pacs... and he swum an incredible 2:08.36 (breaking Brendan Hansen's textile best time of 2:08.50 in the process).

Lesson learnt.

- Nathan Adrian beating Cesar Cielo was a big surprise. Both men had great times, 21.55 and 21.57 respectively.... but fascinatingly, Cielo got a great start and looked like he was up on Adrian at the breakout. So that means that Adrian's flat out sprint freestyle speed was considerably faster than Cielo's. (Seems like an obvious point but not many people imagined that to be the case coming into Pan Pacs).

- If Park Tae Hwan, Paul Biedermann and Yannick Agnel raced each other tomorrow on the 400m Free I'm picking Park to win. He demolished the field on the final 100m at Pan Pacs. His last split.... 53.85, the fastest 100 of the entire race. When Ian Thorpe swam 3:40.08 his final 100m split was 54.65... (Thorpe did go out in 1:49.57). Biedermann came back in 52.90 in Rome last year when he swam 3:40.07 but hasn't looked comfortable over 400m all year.

- Congratulations to Chloe Sutton on winning her first Gold medal in an international pool competition on the 400m Freestyle. A real talent who should add many more to her tally. Next year at Worlds she gets to face the best Europe has to offer, Federica Pellegrini and Rebecca Adlington.

Thoughts from Pan Pacs Swimming - Day Two

Pan Pacs looks like a fun meet. Odd. But fun.

Let's get straight to Day Two's talking points...

- Natalie Coughlin looked supreme as she took victory in the women's 100m Free. The one thing she hasn't lost is her incredible skill on starts and turns. On the women's side, Coughlin remains the best underwater swimmer in the world. With Britta Steffen and Marleen Veldhuis out of action, the world's top two 100m Freestylers this year have been Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Fran Halsall. Coughlin looks like she's made it into a top three.

- Nathan Adrian continues to impress in the freestyle sprints winning in a time of 48.15. Last year Adrian got down to 48.00 at US Nationals. In Rome he made it to the semi-finals where he finished 10th in 48.13 behind Pan Pac swimmers such as Cesar Cielo, Nicolas Oliveira, Brent Hayden, David Walters and Lyndon Ferns. The tables have certainly been turned in 2010.

Brent Hayden was equally impressive with his time of 48.19. Cesar Cielo looks like his 50m Free is going to be a bit special splitting in 22.74 before running out of gas on the second 50m. Eamon Sullivan also went out quickly (22.89) before coming home 7th in 48.84. It's been a strange year for Sullivan, lets see what he can go at Commonwealths.

- Rebecca Soni's victory in the 100m Breast (1:04.93) wasn't just a sensational time, it was a statement. In the first head-to-head with Leisel Jones this year, Soni smoked the second 50m to pull clearly away from Jones. There wasn't much doubt before the meet that Soni is currently the best female breaststroker in the world, there can be none now.

Milestones from yesterday's swim

- 3rd fastest 100m Breaststroke of all-time (Soni now owns the second and third fastest times ever)
- Fastest time ever in a textile suit (beating Leisel Jones' 1:05.06)
- First woman under 1:05 in a textile suit
- Faster than Leisel Jones has ever been in the 100m Breast

The most exciting part.... Soni still has her best event, the 200m, still to come. Annamay Pierse's WR is under serious threat.

- Kosuke Kitajima is the best breaststroker in the world. Surprised?  Despite being slower in the final (59.35) than the heats (59.04), Kitajima was in complete control of the race and won comfortably. It went a little unnoticed but during the heats Kitajima broke Brendan Hansen's textile best time of 59.13. Again, that was during the heats.

- So after I crowned Caitlin Leverenz the best US female over 400m IM, I now have to eat my words and give the title back to Elizabeth Beisel. Like Kitajima, Beisel was slower in the final than the heats, but still dominated the race. To win Pan Pacs by 3 seconds is an impressive swim, even if the race was missing Steph Rice.

Beisel still needs to find a second to get past Hannah Miley's world leading time from Europeans (not fully tapered) which is starting to look more and more impressive.

- 2010's top male swimmer Ryan Lochte impressed again winning the 400m IM. This race was an example of the difference between how a race can look on TV and how it actually panned out. At US Nationals Tyler Clary was up on Lochte at 200m before Lochte blew past him on the Breast and Free. On the surface last night it looked like Lochte went out much faster than US Nationals on the Fly and Back legs (well ahead of Clary at 200m) before hanging on during the Breast and Free legs. The splits tell a different story though with Lochte faster on all 4 strokes last night. It was on Backstroke where the two splits were closest.

- Pan Pacs        4:07.59 - Fly - 54.83, Back - 1:01.90, Breast - 1:12.01, Free - 58.85
- US Nationals 4:09.98 - Fly - 55.95, Back - 1:02.11, Breast - 1:12.69, Free - 59.23

- Women's 50m Backstroke was interesting as it didn't feature a US female swimmer in the top 3 for the first time so far at 2010 Pan Pacs. The men have also had one race so far where a US swimmer didn't make it into the top 3, the men's 50m Butterfly on Day One.

- Junya Koga took Japan's second victory of the night in the men's 50m Backstroke in a time of 24.86. Not a bad time, but once again Camille Lacourt must be beaming when he sees that he is still 0.65 seconds clear of all Pan Pac swimmers this year over 50m. (The closest Pan Pac swimmer to Lacourt in 2010 is Matt Grevers who didn't make the US team).

- The women's 4 x 200m Free was much closer than expected. During prelims of the 200m Free, USA swimmers were ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th. The Australian women were ranked 4th, 5th, 9th and 10th. Despite this going into the final leg Australia were ahead of the Americans by 0.13. Fortunately America could call on the individual 200m Free winner Allison Schmitt to avoid the upset.

- No such trouble for the US men who won the 4 x 200m Free relay by over 7 seconds from Japan. Their time was also nearly 3 seconds clear of Russia's best effort from the European Champs. That will happen when you have two guys swim 1:45 and the other two swim 1:46s.

Interestingly the US team were 5 seconds adrift of the WR they set in Beijing and then improved by a hundredth of a second last year in Rome. Whilst we are seeing that some individual world records should go over the next couple of years, the effect the suits had on the relay events hasn't been studied in detail. With the benefits the suits gave multiplied by four on a relay, these are records that we could be seeing for many years to come.

Thoughts from Pan Pacs Swimming - Day One

I won't be running through the top three of each event, if you want results check them out here. If you want to watch the races, see them here.

- I picked Yolane Kukla to win the 50m Butterfly, one spot ahead of Marieke Guehrer. I'm going to say I was half right. Kukla won the B final in 25.99, the exact same time that Guehrer won the A final in. Emily Seebohm took second in the A final just 0.09 behind Guehrer. At Pan Pacs where only 2 per nation can go into the A final and a third swimmer can only swim in the B final, the women's 50m Fly was as close to a 1-2-3 for Australia as we're going to see.

- Cesar Cielo looks like he's on form. He won the 50m Fly in a rapid 23.03 that also included a bit of a glide in to the wall. Cielo's finish had nothing on Roland Schoeman who took his last stroke with a good 3m still to swim. Good thing Schoeman has long arms.

Cielo's time must be making Fred Bousquet sit up and pay attention. Bousquet had been no.1 in the 50m Free with a time of 21.71 earlier this year. Cielo took that down a notch when he swam 21.55 in Paris in June before Bousquet turned in a stunning 21.36 at Europeans last week. Will we see the mantle of the world's best sprinter change hands once again at Pan Pacs?

- Pretty dominant win for Allison Schmitt on the 200m Free. Schmitt won silver last year at World's behind Federica Pellegrini and is now ranked second in the world this year behind Pellegrini (by a clear distance to Dana Vollmer in third). Is it safe to say now that she is the number two 200m Freestyler in the world?

Sidenote - Pleased to see Haruka Ueda make the 200m Free final as I have her pegged in for bronze on the 100m Free. Interesting fact about Ueda, last year at world's she was 30th in 55.91, this year she is already down to 54.87... suits, what suits?

- Stat-head's rejoice. Here's your virtual Ryan Lochte vs Paul Biedermann 200m Free race.

Despite the overall times coming up pretty close (just 0.17 seconds in it), both men swam the race very differently. Lochte got out a lot faster on the first 50, with both men swimming almost identical second 50s. Lochte made another strong move on the third 50 that broke the field in Irvine and was 0.3 seconds faster than Biedermann's third 50. On the way home though Lochte was hanging on whilst Biedermann was flying. Biedermann came home almost a second faster than Lochte. Just a shame we won't get to see Lochte v Biedermann (and ofcourse Phelps) this year. Both guys are big-time racers and you know that Lochte would have raised his game on the final 50 against the German, just as Biedermann wouldn't have let Lochte get so far ahead at 150m.

Lochte vs. Biedermann splits
Lochte         - 24.77, 51.65 (26.88), 1:18.12 (26.47), 1:45.30 (27.18)
Biedermann - 25.53, 52.37 (26.84) , 1:19.14 (26.77), 1:45.47 (26.33)


- Impressive swim by Emily Seebohm to win the 100m Back. Seebohm now has 3 of the top 4 swims in the world this year over 100m Back.

At 70m I thought Natalie Coughlin would hold on for victory, but she faded over the last metres. Still an awesome job in her first major international meet back after a year's break.


- Classic Peirsol swim. Wait until people start to write him off, rely on Ryan Lochte scratching the final to swim, then win the whole thing. There is one thing that does need to be brought up. This is the American team's big meet of the year and the backstroke boys have ended up well behind Camille Lacourt. Lacourt swam 1.2 seconds faster than Peirsol to win Europeans, almost breaking his WR in the process. Think Lacourt's swim was a one-off or a fluke? He's been faster than Peirsol's winning time 5 times this year.


Tough crowd for David Plummer, outstanding job to qualify for the final in a time of 53.33 which would have been good enough for second in the final. He couldn't quite match that in the evening finishing 5th in 53.80.


Quiz time - Who is the fastest American 100m Backstroker in 2010? Clue... He didn't qualify for the Pan Pac team.


- Great battle in the 200m Fly between Jessicah Schipper and Teresa Crippen. Both ladies went for it and were suffering in the last 5 metres. 3rd (Schipper) and 6th (Zsuzsanna Jakabos) in the world this year are separated by just 0.16 of a second. China's Jiao Liuyang is well out infront with an impressive 2:05.46

- Never thought I'd say this but..... sort your turns out Mike. Michael Phelps put up a much stronger showing in the 200m Fly at Pan Pacs than he did at US Nationals. It was the dominant win you expect everytime from Phelps over 200m Fly, but he still completely missed his first and third turns. 


- Epic battle on the women's 800m Free. Kate Ziegler, Chloe Sutton and Katie Goldman all held the lead at various points of the race but it was Ziegler's strong second half (out 4:11.4/back 4:10.1) that clinched it. The signs have been there for a while now but Ziegler is definitely back to her best form. Her time moves her to 2nd in the world this year, just behind Rebecca Adlington. Sutton also had a great swim to take her first international medal in the pool, one of many you suspect. Katie Goldman showed that she will be Rebecca Adlington's number one competitor at Commonwealths later this year.


- Ryan Cochrane was dominant on the 1500m Free. I'd be surprised if his time of 14:49 is bettered this year. Not sure what happened to Ous Mellouli. He trailed in last place in a time of 15:24. Mellouli's entered into the 10k open water, you hope endurance isn't his problem in California.