Russian Championships

Swimming fanatics can watch the Russian Championships online. Unfortunately for non-Russian speakers you'll have to do a fair amount of translation but its still great coverage.

Start of rant - All the major swimming nations are putting Britain to shame when it comes to media coverage. The USA has live streaming coverage of all major meets. France, Australia and Russia show their nationals on TV.

2 years out from a home Olympic Games and we had our nationals of a major Olympic sport covered live on digital radio and with some highlight clips online the next day which didn't even include the entire races. Swimming will only continue to rise if we give it more exposure outside of the Olympics and major championships. - End of rant.


Psych Sheet here.

КОРОТЫШКИН Евгений - Evgeny Korotshkin
ДОНЕЦ Станислав - Stanislav Donets
СЛУДНОВ Роман - Roman Sloudnov
ЛОБАНОВ Антон - Anton Lobanov
ФАЛЬКО Григорий - Grigory Falko
ГЕЙБЕЛЬ Сергей - Sergey Geybel
ЛАХТЮХОВ Станислав - Stanislav Lakhtyukhov
ИЗОТОВ Данила - Danila Isotov
ЛОБИНЦЕВ Никита - Nikita Lobintsev
СУХОРУКОВ Александр - Alexander Sukhorukov

ЕФИМОВА Юлия - Yulia Efimova
АРТЕМЬЕВА Валентина - Valentina Artemyeva
ЗУЕВА Анастасия - Anastasia Zueva


Links to coverage

4 May - Finals (16:55 Russian Time)

5 May - Finals (16:55)

6 May - Finals (16:55)

7 May - Finals (17:00)

8 May - Finals (17:00)

9 May - Finals (17:00)

Fred Bousquet on The Morning Swim Show

Great episode of the Morning Swim Show today with Fred Bousquet.

He talks about his daughter Manon (2024, 2028 and 2032 Olympic Champion), the new suits, uber-prospect Yannick Agnel and his desire to return to Auburn to train and compete.

Ian Thorpe - Considering comeback for 2012?

The Herald Sun reports today that Ian Thorpe, 27, is considering a surprise comeback in time for London 2012.

It's understood Thorpe, 27, discussed his plans with Australia's current batch of crack male sprinters - Eamon Sullivan, Andrew Lauterstein, Ashley Callus and Matt Targett - at the Commonwealth Games trials in Sydney last month, allegedly saying: "Let's get the 4x100 in London."

I say this happens... Just three days ago at a sports convention in Dubai Thorpe revealed “I’ve walked away, not retired”. Thorpedo is media-savvy enough to know how this will have been taken and to have the story break so soon afterwards tells me that we'll get the welcome return of this century's first global swimming star.

Assuming it does happen, several questions remain:-

A) Will he get back into the kind of shape he needs to be to make the Australian team?

- Look at Geoff Huegill. Thorpe might not even be the biggest surprise comeback Olympian on the 2012 team.

B) Will he focus only on the 4 x 100 Free relay?

- If Thorpe can get down to a mid-48 on the 100 Free (what it will probably take to qualify comfortably for the Aussie team) then I'm guessing he could also swim a pretty mean 200m Free. You can add the 4 x 200 Free relay to his list. When it comes to individual events I think Thorpe needs to be in with a real shot at a medal (probably Gold) for him to consider it. The individual 200m Free would probably be the most suitable event for him and as a result his participation might depend on what Phelps/Biedermann/Agnel/Isotov etc. are producing. The endurance needed for the 400m Free might be a step too far even for Thorpe. I don't see him being able to match Cielo/Bernard/Sullivan for speed in the individual 100 Free.

C) Will Thorpe's presence be enough to win Gold for Australia in the 4 x 100 Free relay in 2012?

- It will certainly give the team a boost and should help Australia but it still might not be enough to claim gold.

France have to be considered favourites with the USA a close second. So far this year the fastest 4 French 100m Freestylers are:-

A Bernard - 48.32 (World Rank 1)
F Gilot - 48.52 (W.r. =2)
W Meynard - 48.79 (W.r 5)
Y Agnel - 48.99 (W.r 8)

This doesn't even include the seriously talented A Leveaux, F Bousquet, B Steimetz and G Mallet.

Australia's top 4 in comparison:-

E Sullivan - 48.52 (W.r =2)
T D'Orsagna - 49.35 (W.r 18)
J Magnussen - 49.43 (W.r 19)
K Richardson- 49.47 (W.r 25)

The US team will always challenge and have a wealth of talent available. (Phelps, Adrian, Walters, Grevers, Weber-Gale, Jones, new guys coming through... Lezak!)

D) If Thorpe does comeback, is it the best news in 2010 for the sport of swimming?

Yes.

Bergen Swim Festival 2010

Bergen Swim Festival 2010

07.05.2010 - 09.05.2010

This top class short course meter event gets going next Friday.

Start/Psych sheet here

Results here

COMPETITION START TIMES (Norwegian Time)

Friday - 1500 hours
Saturday - 0900 and 1700 hours
Sunday - 0900 and 1500 hours

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.

41st National Arena Swimming League Cup Final

British Swimming's closest event to the NCAA Championships (in terms of atmosphere) took place this weekend. The competition draws together the top teams in the country who battle it out in order to crown the best overall team in England and Wales. Ages range from 9-11 years to Senior.

For the third year in a row Plymouth Leander cemented their position as the strongest club in the country. Their strength in depth was highlighted by winning 11 of 16 relays.

Top Club
1 Plymouth Lea 422
2 Stockport Mo 336
3 Millfield 328
4 Camden Swiss 288
5 Guildford Ct 271
6 Hatfield 270
7 Co Liverpool 267
8 Bournem'th D 219
9 Co Peterboro 177
10 Boldmere 174

The 41st National Arena Swimming League Cup Final - Results

Featuring James Goddard, Fran Halsall, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, Antony James, Michael Rock and David Carry amongst others.


The 10th National Arena Swimming League B Final - Results

Featuring Liam Tancock, Ross Davenport, Craig Gibbons and Tom Haffield amongst others.

Spanish Championships

Spanish Nationals is taking place from April 22nd - 25th. Results can be found here.

Finals start at 6pm Spanish time each day.

Japan Swim 2010 Recap

The Japanese nationals have produced some outstanding swims and not all of them from the swimmers you would expect.

My star of the meet

Ryo Tateishi



A clean sweep of the Breaststroke events was expected at this competition, but Kosuke Kitajima was the man tipped for the feat. Instead Ryo Tateishi took the honours in the 50m, 100m and 20m Breast. In doing so he vaulted himself to the top of the world rankings in the 100m and 200m and into the consciousness of world swimming.

Tateishi's times were as follows - 50m - 27.62 (third in the world this year), 100m - 59.84 (first in the world), 200m - 2:09.21 (first in the world).

With the exception of the 200m, where the double-double Olympic champion had a poor second half of the race, Tateishi beat an in-form Kitajima.

Kitajima has long flown the flag alone for male Japanese breaststrokers, but he now has some serious company. It should drive both men onto great things in the next few years.