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.

European Swimming Championships

The European Swimming Championships start today in Budapest.

From a British perspective it has a strange feel to it knowing that the Commonwealth Games will be the main focus this year. It is a shame that British Swimming don't put so much emphasis on European competition. As good as Australia, South Africa and Canada are, for many of our top swimmers they face much fiercer rivals in Europe than they do in the Commonwealth.

Britain should still come away with a decent medal haul. With Ryan Lochte swimming like a man possessed something must be going right in Florida so look for team-mate Gemma Spofforth to have a good meet.

Key British races to watch

Elizabeth Simmonds vs Gemma Spofforth - 100m/200m Backstroke

Katinka Hosszu vs Hannah Miley - 400m IM

Liam Tancock vs Camille Lacourt - 100m Backstroke

Francesca Halsall vs Femke Heemskerk - 100m Freestyle

Rebecca Adlington vs Federica Pellegrini vs Lotte Friis - 800m Freestyle

Ellen Gandy vs Jemma Lowe vs Mireia Belmonte Garcia vs Katinka Hosszu vs Zsuzsanna Jakabos - 200m Butterfly

Federica Pellegrini vs Rebecca Adlington vs Jo Jackson vs Coralie Balmy vs Camille Muffat - 400m Freestyle

Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay


Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay


Other races to watch out for

Paul Biedermann vs Yannick Agnel - 400m Freestyle

Laszlo Cseh vs Gergo Kis - 400m IM

Fred Bousquet vs Alain Bernard vs Fabien Gilot vs Amaury Leveaux - Heats 50m Freestyle (only 2 can go through)


Start Lists and Results can be found - Here

Live Timing - Here

For those in the UK, the BBC are doing a pretty decent job this year with some coverage of every evening session. (Unfortunately it only makes it onto BBC 2 three times during the competition)

Eurosport as usual will show both heats and finals. For those that don't have Eurosport you can sign up online for £3.99 a month to watch it online. Well worth it.

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Thoughts from US Nationals Day Three

Normality returned to US Nationals on Day Three. Michael Phelps swam a rapid 100m Fly (second fastest time in a textile suit), Rebecca Soni blasted her 100m Breast and Nathan Adrian confirmed his status as one of the very best sprinters in world swimming. There were also a number of other stories of note from last night.

Let's get through this together...

- Josh Schneider's DQ was ridiculous. Simply ridiculous. I hope he gets off on his equally ridiculous technicality and gets to swim at Pan Pacs. He deserves to as he did nothing wrong during the 50m Freestyle. After all the controversies of suits and the new rules being introduced, why does the sport need to employ such drastic and unnecessary measures for simply skipping an event without informing the meet organisers? To DQ someone in swimming it needs to be for a valid reason... false start, more than 15m under water, illegal suit, doped up to the eyeballs etc. Schneider did none of these (hopefully).

Make Schneider pay $20 for missing the race, make him run round the pool in a Borat Mankini, but don't disqualify the guy when he did nothing wrong during the event.

- Hat tip to Nathan Adrian for becoming the fourth fastest man ever in a textile suit behind Cesar Cielo (21.55 this year), Alexander Popov (21.64 in 2000) and Roland Schoeman (21.69 in 2005). I would say its safe to now say that he is firmly established in the top tier of world sprinting alongside Mr. Cielo, Mr. Bernard and Mr. Bousquet. His 100m Freestyle today could be something special.

- Some swimmers who win nationals benefit from being in the right place at the right time. They may have had an incredible taper which allows them to be in the perfect condition to race. The competition may have had an off day, bad taper or let pressure get to them. Caitlin Leverenz winning the 400m IM was the exact opposite of that.

Watching that 400m IM it was clear to me that Leverenz must be considered USA's new No.1 in the event (and yes there is a difference between winning nationals and being the No.1 swimmer in an event in my eyes). The lead she gained after the Breaststroke leg was enormous. Leverenz split 1:15.56, the next fastest Breaststroke leg was Katie Hoff's 1:18.74. Whilst Leverenz' freestyle leg leaves a lot to be desired (she will need to shave some time off her 1:05.12 split at Pan Pacs), her breaststroke is a weapon that the rest of the world should be fearful of.

Breastroke splits of the women ranked ahead of Leverenz on the 400m IM this year
Katinka Hosszu - 1:19.80
Steph Rice - 1:19.83
Hannah Miley - 1:17.39
Xuanxu Li - No idea (no access to the results/splits from Chinese Nationals)

(Socaladvracer, who commented on David Rieder's blog, has been spot on with his singling out of not only Leverenz but also Morgan Scroggy to do well.)

- Rebecca Soni has a lot more to come on the 100m Breaststroke. Soni's time of 1:05.73 moves her to No. 1 in the world this year but it masked the fact that she had a poor start and poor finish. The second 50m of her race though was one of the most impressive 50 meters I have seen all year. She completely destroyed the rest of the field.

Spare a thought for Jessica Hardy. It has been a rough few years for Hardy and she is making her first appearance at Nationals for 2 years. She led both the 100m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle finals last night before slipping away towards the end of both races.

(Weird fact from the 100m Breaststroke final last night. Rebecca Soni was the only swimmer to improve upon her heat time. Everyone else was slower in the evening's final.)

- Finally... You think Ryan Lochte is the only swimmer to have his own personalised shoes? Think again. This is the final proof that Britain is catching up with America in swimming.

Thoughts from US Nationals Day Two

Day Two at US Nationals can be summed up in one word... 'odd'.

The two oddest moments from last night

1. Victory in the Men's 100m Backstroke goes to.... David Plummer?

This was billed as THE race of this competition. It had been the subject of more hype than any other. Natalie Coughlin's return to competition, Phelps coming back from defeat in the 200m Free last year, Ryan Lochte's new shoes .... nothing could compete with the prospect of the 100m Back final at US Nationals possibly being stronger than any other 100m Back race in the world this year.

The stage was set. One of the greatest backstrokers of all-time, Aaron Peirsol, had struggled all year, but in typical fashion returned to form just before the meet started. Nick Thoman broke the Short Course World Record at Duel in the Pool and was considered the heir apparent to Peirsol's throne. Uber-talented Matt Grevers swam 53.05 back in March at the Austin Grand Prix off a short taper. Peirsol, Thoman and Grevers were clear favourites but with Ryan Lochte possibly competing and Randall Bal, David Russell, Ben Hesen and NCAA Champ Eugene Godsoe threatening the race had some interesting possible connotations.

The one guy who seemingly didn't get a mention, David Plummer from Minnetonka Swim Club, upset them all. It was a fantastic job by Plummer. 53.60 is a world class time and he took his opportunity superbly.

Two questions. Why was Grevers nearly a second down on his time from the Austin Grand Prix? Will Liam Tancock's 52.85 time from British Nationals still be top of the world rankings following Europeans & Pan Pacs?


2. What happened to Michael Phelps on the 200m Fly?

Phelps was visibly 'off' during his 200m Fly. His start was poor (anytime you see him come up alongside his competitors you know its gone badly wrong). His first turn was average. His second turn was shocking and the third turn wasn't much better. For Phelps a time of 1:56.00 is pedestrian at best.

Mel Stewart summed it up best during commentary - 'I bet he's done that in practice before'. One question a lot of people want to know is how many practices has Phelps been to this year?

It was a strange night for Phelps. He turned it on in the 200m Free. 1:45.61 is a quality swim and notably is the fastest in the world this year so far, but for Ryan Lochte to get so close to Phelps was interesting. One of Phelps' biggest strengths is his ability to recover during a session. That 200m Free really took a toll on Phelps and he admitted as much during the post race interview after the 200m Fly.



Fortunately Natalie Coughlin was there to offer some normality to the evening's proceedings with victory in the 100m Back. She just doesn't lose this event at US Nationals. Elizabeth Pelton finished fourth and really needs to find her best form on the 200m Back if she's going to qualify for Pan Pacs.


For anyone interested in the prediction contest, I'm sitting in second right now. My plan is to do an Allison Schmitt, hang with the early pace before edging ahead on the final run in....

1. Reed 107
2. Tom (SpeedEndurance) 100
3. David "THE Swim Geek" Rieder 98
4. G. John 88
4. Matt 88
6. Rob 83
7. John 81
8. Andy 80
9. Chris "TAKE THAT!" DeSantis 73
9. Braden 73
11. Jerry 70

Thoughts from US Nationals

Not only are the US Nationals the fastest nationals in the world, they are also the best covered. I could do a standard play-by-play recap of all events but that has already been done here, here, and here. As usual you also have the pleasure of reading all about the effects the evil suits had on swimming here.

Its Bullet-Time

Chloe Sutton won that 400m Free. Fact. I know if you watch the race and look at the results it will show her coming third behind Katie Hoff and Allison Schmitt, but in my eyes she's the new US Champion.

In terms of the 'swimming' done during the race Sutton was clearly faster than both Hoff and Schmitt. If that race was held in a 400m pool or even a 100m pool she would have won by a distance. Sutton gave Hoff half a meter at every single turn. Despite this Sutton finished in 4:06.33, 0.83 down on Hoff and good for 8th in the world this year.

This is what makes Sutton such an exciting swimmer. There is so much improvement that can be made on her races technically. Turns are amongst the easiest improvements that can be made. Even if she never gets them to the level of Hoff, if she can lessen the damage done on each turn she could dominate the women's freestyle from 400m-10k for many years.

The most exciting part of the men's 400m Freestyle was the B final. Sure, the A final saw Peter VDK do his thing as well as Michael Klueh and Charles Houchin make the step up to world class level...

...but the A final didn't showcase a 15 year old boy racing to a 3:53.04. Evan Pinion, who last year broke two of Michael Phelps' 13-14 yr old age group records, is now ranked 54th in the world this year. Just incase you were skim reading, Pinion is 15! He wouldn't have been eligible (too young and too non-European) for the recent European Junior Championships 400m Final and still would have finished second.

The women's 200m IM was an interesting race. Ariana Kukors winning it came as no surprise. If anything I expected her to be faster (sub 2:10). Her time from the final (2:10.54) was slower than her time from Austin back in March (2:10.34). When she faces Steph Rice at Pan Pacs we should see that sub 2:10 swim and a serious crack at Yanyan Wu's tainted textile best mark of 2:09.72.

Caitlin Leverenz (6th in the world) and Morgan Scroggy (8th in the world) really stepped up taking second and third respectively. For the rest of the field we were able to get some clues about where they are at:-

Watch out for Missy Franklin. Franklin had the fastest freestyle split of the entire race and looks on top form in Irvine.

Elizabeth Beizel and Pelton had solid if not spectacular swims. Worringly for Pelton her backstroke split of 33.32 ranked only sixth in the final last night, a strange fact given her strong showings on 100m and 200m Back so far this year.

What happened to Julia Smit? She went from setting NCAA and American records back in February over 200yd and 400yd IM to finishing eigth in the final with 2:14.01. Last year she missed the final at LC World's but broke the SC World Record. Until she proves otherwise, I'm seeing Smit as a short course specialist.

Ryan Lochte is pretty tidy swimmer over 400m IM. He also designs shoes.

I wonder whether Lochte will get close to Phelps' textile mark of 4:06.22 at Pan Pacs. He was 3.76 secs off that in the final, with the majority of that time lost on the freestyle leg.

Phelps - 25.56/55.05/1:26.70/1:58.18/2:33.30/3:09.33/3:38.43/4:06.22
Lochte - 26.02/55.95/1:27.02/1:58.06/2:34.54/3:10.75/3:41.35/4:09.98

Finally... Didn't we get rid of the suits so that we can now talk about the racing and the swimmers. Looks like they didn't receive the memo over at SwimNews. Its August now and the first 8 paragraphs of their preview for US Nationals are about suits... Yawn.

US Nationals - Predictions Contest

Recap of all the participants taking part in the US Nationals Predictions Challenge.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AmKNofXojGLrdDE3bTRZRWM2Y3VlRjFsVjh1RDRDZkE&hl=en&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Feeling pretty good about my picks.

Surprised I was the only one picking NCAA champ Ann Chandler to medal on the 100m Breast. She was dominant at NCAA's and should be primed to step up over LC meters. I was also the only one to pick Chloe Sutton to win the 400m Free. I know Katie Hoff is having a resurgent year and is the fastest ranked American this year, but Sutton has already beaten her on the Grand Prix circuit. I think Sutton has more to offer in this event and (provided her turns have improved) could post a 4:04-4:05 time. I also expect good things from Justine Mueller on the 200m IM, but couldn't bring myself to put her ahead of Kukors, Smit or Hoff. The women's 200m IM is stacked.

I salute Braden Keith for choosing Matt Grevers to win the 100m Back. I have him a close second behind Peirsol... Not too sure about picking Eugene Godsoe to finish third though.

Live Results - Here

US Nationals - Predictions - Final Version

US Nationals has for a long time been one of my favourite competitions of the year. The level of domestic competition is in a different league to every other swimming nation on the planet. Coming from Britain my chances in the prediction contest may be written off before the competition gets under way. I hope they are. Whilst I wouldn't dream of damaging the 'special relationship' between Britain and America... it would be awesome to win this thing.

The one advantage I am counting on is my objectivity. I am not clouded by favouritism for swimmers, clubs, universities, states or former glories (try and spot Jason Lezak in my 100m Free picks). Most importantly, I don't have a nickname riding on the result...


Women

50m Free

1. Kara Lynn Joyce
2. Amanda Weir
3. Jessica Hardy

100m Free

1. Dana Vollmer
2. Natalie Coughlin
3. Amanda Weir
4. Kara Lynn Joyce
5. Jessica Hardy
6. Missy Franklin

200m Free

1. Allison Schmitt
2. Dana Vollmer
3. Katie Hoff
4. Dagny Knutson
5. Missy Franklin
6. Ariana Kukors

400m Free

1. Chloe Sutton
2. Allison Schmitt
3. Katie Hoff

800m Free

1. Chloe Sutton
2. Kate Ziegler
3. Emily Brunemann

100m Back

1. Elizabeth Pelton
2. Natalie Coughlin
3. Missy Franklin

200m Back

1. Elizabeth Pelton
2. Elizabeth Beisel
3. Margaret Hoelzer

100m Breast

1. Rebecca Soni
2. Jessica Hardy
3. Ann Chandler

200m Breast

1. Rebecca Soni
2. Keri Hehn
3. Megan Jendrick

100m Fly

1. Dana Vollmer
2. Natalie Coughlin
3. Christine Magnuson

200m Fly

1. Mary Mohler
2. Elaine Breeden
3. Kim Vandenberg

200m IM

1. Ariana Kukors
2. Julia Smit
3. Katie Hoff

400m IM

1. Katie Hoff
2. Julia Smit
3. Elizabeth Beisel

Men

50m Free

1. Nathan Adrian
2. Josh Schneider
3. Garrett Weber Gale

100m Free

1. Nathan Adrian
2. David Walters
3. Garrett Weber Gale
4. Jimmy Feigen
5. Matt Grevers
6. Ricky Berens

200m Free

1. Michael Phelps
2. Peter Vanderkaay
3. Ryan Lochte
4. Ricky Berens
5. Conor Dwyer
6. David Walters

400m Free

1. Peter Vanderkaay
2. Michael Klueh
3. Chad La Tourette

1500m Free

1. Peter Vanderkaay
2. Chad La Tourette
3. Michael Klueh

100m Back

1. Aaron Peirsol
2. Matt Grevers
3. Nick Thoman

200m Back

1. Ryan Lochte
2. Michael Phelps
3. Aaron Peirsol

100m Breast

1. Eric Shanteau
2. Mark Gangloff
3. Mike Alexandrov

200m Breast

1. Eric Shanteau
2. Mike Alexandrov
3. Scott Spann

100m Fly

1. Michael Phelps
2. Tyler McGill
3. Thomas Shields

200m Fly

1. Michael Phelps
2. Tyler Clary
3. Robert Bollier

200m IM

1. Michael Phelps
2. Ryan Lochte
3. Eric Shanteau

400m IM

1. Ryan Lochte
2. Tyler Clary
3. Alex Vanderkaay

2010 ConocoPhillips National Championships - 8/3/2010 to 8/7/2010

US Nationals - Pan Pac Trials - August 3rd - 8th

The psych sheet has been released for US Nationals - Psych Sheet Here

Prediction contest hosted by David 'The Swim Geek' Rieder - Here (controverial nickname up for grabs in a challenge with Chris De Santis)