Pan Pacs Predictions

David 'The Swim Geek' Rieder has another prediction contest lined up for the upcoming Pan Pacific Champs which take place Aug 18th-Aug 22nd. Pysch Sheet - Here

Results - Here and Here

UPDATE - Table with all predictions can be found here.

During the last prediction contest for US Nationals I steered Speed Endurance to a second placed finish, this time I'm looking to go one better and take the top spot.

Those just missing out on a spot in the top 3 were... Zhang Lin - 200m Free, Nick Thoman - 100m Back, Eamon Sullivan Brent Hayden - 100m Free, Chang Gao - 100m Back, Satomi Suzuki - 100m Breast & Takuro Fujii - 100m Fly. On second thoughts, I can't leave Eamon Sullivan out of the 100m Free. Brent Hayden is arguably more consistent, but Sullivan has the talent to win this thing if he hooks it up right on the day.

Jessica Hardy is down to swim both the 100m Free and 100m Breast on Day Two. Swimming multiple finals didn't work out too well for her at Nationals so I am taking a leap of faith and assuming she qualifies for the 100m Free and decides to swim that as she has a better shot at Gold.

Hard to know what to make of the Chinese contingent. I'm picking Liu Zige to turn up and have a strong meet, despite spending 2010 under the radar. I don't care if she was wearing a rocket propelled suit, I'm picking the lady that's been 2:01.81 for 200m Fly.

Women's 50 Fly
1. Yolane Kukla
2. Marieke Guehrer
3. Christine Magnuson

Men's 50 Fly
1. Roland Schoeman
2. Geoff Huegill
3. Cesar Cielo

Women's 200 Free
1. Allison Schmitt
2. Dana Vollmer
3. Bronte Barratt

Men's 200 Free
1. Ryan Lochte
2. Tae Hwan Park
3. Peter Vanderkaay

Women's 100 Back
1. Emily Seebohm
2. Natalie Coughlin
3. Aya Terakawa

Men's 100 Back
1. Aaron Peirsol
2. Junya Koga
3. Ryosuke Irie

Women's 200 Fly
1. Liu Zige
2. Jessicah Schipper
3. Kathleen Hersey

Men's 200 Fly
1. Michael Phelps
2. Nick D'Arcy
3. Takeshi Matsuda

Women's 800 Free
1. Chloe Sutton
2. Katie Goldman
3. Kate Ziegler

Men's 1500 Free
1. Ous Mellouli
2. Ryan Cochrane
3. Chad LaTourette

Women's 100 Free
1. Dana Vollmer
2. Jessica Hardy
3. Haruka Ueda

Men's 100 Free
1. Cesar Cielo Filho
2. Nathan Adrian
3. Eamon Sullivan

Women's 100 Breast
1. Rebecca Soni
2. Leisel Jones
3. Ann Chandler

Men's 100 Breast
1. Kosuke Kitajima
2. Brenton Rickard
3. Ryo Tateishi

Women's 400 IM
1. Caitlin Leverenz
2. Arianna Kukors
3. Miho Takahashi

Men's 400 IM
1. Ryan Lochte
2. Michael Phelps
3. Yuya Horihata

Women's 50 Back
1. Aya Terakawa
2. Emily Seebohm
3. Sophie Edington

Men's 50 Back
1. Junya Koga
2. Guilherme Guido
3. Nick Thoman

Women's 4x200 Free
1. USA
2. Australia
3. Canada

Men's 4x200 Free
1. USA
2. Japan
3. Australia

Women's 400 Free
1. Katie Hoff
2. Bronte Barratt
3. Chloe Sutton

Men's 400 Free
1. Tae Hwan Park
2. Zhang Lin
3. Ous Mellouli

Women's 100 Fly
1. Jessicah Schipper
2. Liu Zige
3. Christine Magnuson

Men's 100 Fly
1. Michael Phelps
2. Andrew Lauterstein
3. Tyler McGill

Women's 200 Back
1. Belinda Hocking
2. Elizabeth Beisel
3. Shiho Sakai

Men's 200 Back
1. Ryosuke Irie
2. Ryan Lochte
3. Aaron Peirsol

Women's 50 Breast
1. Jessica Hardy
2. Rebecca Soni
3. Leisel Jones

Men's 50 Breast
1. Kosuke Kitajima
2. Felipe Silva
3. Brenton Rickard

Women's 4x100 Free
1. USA
2. Australia
3. Canada

Men's 4x100 Free
1. USA
2. Australia
3. South Africa

Men's 800 Free
1. Ous Mellouli
2. Ryan Cochrane
3. Peter Vanderkaay

Women's 200 IM
1. Ariana Kukors
2. Emily Seebohm
3. Caitlin Leverenz

Men's 200 IM
1. Ryan Lochte
2. Michael Phelps
3. Thiago Pereira

Women's 50 Free
1. Kara Lynn Joyce
2. Yolane Kukla
3. Jessica Hardy

Men's 50 Free
1. Cesar Cielo Filho
2. Nathan Adrian
3a. Josh Schneider protest pick
3b. Roland Schoeman

Women's 200 Breast
1. Rebecca Soni
2. Leisel Jones
3. Annamay Pierse

Men's 200 Breast
1. Ryo Tateishi
2. Brenton Rickard
3. Eric Shanteau

Women's 1500 Free
1. Melissa Gorman
2. Kristel Kobrich
3. Kate Ziegler

Women's 4x100 Medley
1. USA
2. Australia
3. Japan

Men's 4x100 Medley
1. USA
2. Japan
3. Australia

Women's OW 10km
1. Chloe Sutton
2. Eva Fabian
3. Melissa Gorman

Men's OW 10km
1. Fran Crippen
2. Ous Mellouli
3. Allan Carmon

Thoughts from the European Swimming Championships - Day Six

-  21.36

Fred Bousquet just swam one of the most impressive 50m Freestyles of all-time. In a pair of jammers that make him feel naked, he absolutely crushed the 50m Freestyle field in the semi-final. The power Bousquet has is phenomenal.



Bousquet and coach Brett Hawke must be feeling pretty good right now. If you didn't catch it back in May 2009 there was quite a spat between Hawke and Swimnews' Craig Lord. This article on Swimnews led to this reaction from Brett Hawke and later this retort on Swimnews.

Its clear (to me at least) that Bousquet is, and was in 2009, in the shape of his life. He has taken the 50m Free into a new era. Alex Popov's 21.64 was the textile best time until this year, to be 0.28 seconds under that mark is phenomenal.

What will we see from Cesar Cielo, Nathan Adrian, Ashley Callus and Eamon Sullivan at Pan Pacs this week? Will anyone, most obvious contender being Cielo, be able to better Bousquet's time?

- Paul Biedermann must have been reading 'Thoughts from Day Three' where I doubted he would end up ranked no. 1 in the world on 200m Freestyle. All it took was the added incentive of racing Yannick Agnel for Biedermann (1:45.47) to knock half a second off his individual final time and have a strong chance of leading the world for the rest of this year.

That was step 1 on Biedermann's 3-step plan to prove his doubters wrong. Still to crack... 2.) Get down to 1:44 and challenge Phelps and Thorpe's best textile times and 3.) Win the World Championships in 2011.

Hats off to the German and French teams for making Biedermann vs Agnel a possibility. They could have easily put both men on the final legs but I suspect that both men requested the lead off leg.

Its becoming increasingly clear that Biedermann thrives on competition, it plays right into his hands. On the 200m he tends to hang with the pace on the first 100 before taking over on the third 50m and pulling away on the final 50m. The stronger the field, the stronger the pace on the first 100m.

... So I'm just going to say it, he's a big time swimmer... Just makes a showdown with Phelps even more enticing.

- Biedermann's lead off time was the main story of the 4 x 200m Free relay but Russia's victory is noteworthy. Because they lack 'star power' (and easily pronounceable names), the Russian team will likely be overlooked when it comes to future freestyle relays at the World Champs/Olympics but the fact is they have incredible strength in depth. The 4 x 100m team's slowest leg was Andrey Grechin's 48.32. Lets see what the US and Australia can muster at Pan Pacs this week.

- Just can't stop talking about this relay... Jeremy Stravius, the Backstroker, swam an incredible 1:45.44 for the French team. Faster than Danila Izotov's split.

- Good job Dragos Agache on the 50m Breaststroke (Silver in 27.47). Nice to see some success for the Romanian men now that Razvan Florea and Dragos Coman are out of the picture. The star of Romanian swimming for many years, Olympic champion Camelia Potec, announced before the competition that she will be deciding on her future in the sport after Budapest.

- Aliaksandra Herasimenia won the women's 50m Backstroke in a new textile best time of 27.64. Unfortunately it doesn't move me in the slightest. Herasimenia was banned for two years for a doping violation in 2003.

Thoughts from the European Swimming Championships - Day Five

- Seriously, what is it with Alain Bernard?

The guy can't swim the final leg of a relay to save his (or France's) life, but steps up heroically when it comes to individual 100m Free finals. First Beijing in 2008, now Budapest in 2010... on both occasions he underwhelmed on the final leg of the relay before producing excellent final swims in the individual.

The 'easy' explanation is that he's selfish and cares more about his own performance than the team's. This I suspect does a huge disservice to Bernard. In Rome 2009 he showed that when tucked away in the less pressured spots of the relay he can produce the goods (his split of 46.46 swimming the second leg was the fastest of the race). I would suggest the odds of Bernard going last on the 4 x 100m Free relay at Worlds next year currently sit somewhere between slim and none.

- Is Sebastien Rouault now ready to make the next step up to compete with distance freestyle's main players? (Mellouli, Zhang, Park, Cochrane, Peter VDK). Rouault acheived the 800/1500 Free double with both victories in world leading times. Talent has never been a problem for Rouault who was a European Junior medalist as well as NCAA champ in 2006 (beating Peter VDK, Larsen Jensen, Michael Klueh and Ous Mellouli in the process).

Rouault's problem appears to be inconsistency. He swam very well in 2006 when he took silver at Europeans in 14:55. In 2005 he swam pretty well at Worlds with a 15:08 but then at 2007 Worlds he swam 15:24 and in Beijing in 2008 swam 15:21.


- 2010 is 'The Year of the Soni' when it comes to women's Breaststroke (especially over 200m), however Anastasia Chaun did a great job of bridging the gap between Soni and the rest of Europe. Going into Europeans on a 2:26, Chaun swam a perfectly paced race (splits of 34.0, 36.2, 36.7, 36.5) to finish on the third fastest time in the world this year (2:23.50).

Chaun's swim denied us of what I can only assume is a rare/never seen before Scandinavian Top 3, with all medals come from a different Scandinavian country. Instead we saw Norway take silver, Denmark take bronze and Sweden take fourth.

European Junior Championships - Day Four

According to the BBC commentators at the end of tonight's session,

"This must be one of the best sessions Britain's ever had."

Perhaps I got too caught up in the competition and hyped the British team a little too much earlier today but I was left feeling a little flat. Possibly unfair given the fact that we're not fully rested and tapered for this meet, let me explain why...

Positives

- Hannah Miley - For me the best swim of the evening for the British team came from Hannah Miley in the 200m IM. Miley was by no means a lock for a medal here and to get down to 2:10.89 is fantastic.Steph Rice (AUS) will certainly not have it easy in both the 200 and 400m IM in Delhi.

- Liam Tancock - Despite nearly losing his 50m Back world record to Camille Lacourt, Tancock did a great job securing silver in a great non-tapered time of 24.70. Must be a little daunting to see just how fast Lacourt (24.07) is swimming, however Tancock is the type of guy that will use it for motivation.

- Number of medals - 5 medals in a session is an excellent result against top class, rested European swimmers. Certainly a sign of a British team cementing its position as a major force in European senior swimming.

- Reaction of the relay team after securing a bronze medal - I loved to see this. Whilst Adrian Moorhouse and Andy Jameson (BBC Commentators) were praising the women's relay team for a 'great' bronze medal, the girls themselves were disappointed and wanted more. The reactions after the race summed it up,

Becky Adlington - "It was a good, solid swim but we all expected a little bit more. If I was at my best we would have won that if I was on form, it's a bit gutting."

Hannah Miley - "I think when we sit down and look at this result we'll see the positives, it's not the end of the world and hopefully we can stick it to them next time."

Jaz Carlin - "I've been waiting around, this is my first swim so I was a bit anxious going in. I'm happy to come away with a bronze, we wanted a bit more but hopefully we'll be on the podium in London 2012."

Jo Jackson - "We're definitely a team effort, there were four of us in there. We want to do our best, we know we're better than the time we did but we're all in heavy training and to come away with a medal, we should be really proud of ourselves."

For me this is a great example of the old British Swimming mentality vs the new. In previous years we would have been happy just to get a medal but nowadays, particularly on some women's events, anything other than gold is disappointing. We're starting to adopt the same mentality of the USA and Australia where its no longer enough just to 'try your best'.

Negatives


- Times in the 100m Backstroke Final - Let me explain why Britain finishing first and second again in the women's backstroke is a negative. Doing the double is a fantastic acheivement and both Gemma Spofforth and Lizzie Simmonds should be delighted with their medals. The disappointing aspect of the race were the times the British girls did. Spofforth's 59.80 and Simmonds' 1:00.19 were both down on British Nationals. Fortunately they both get a chance to improve in Delhi where Emily Seebohm (59.21 this year) will be waiting for them.

- 800m Freestyle final - Becky Adlington seemed out of sorts tonight on the 800m Freestyle. Right from the start she didn't look her usual self in the water. Whether it was physical or mental, I'm certain that Adlington will get it right for Commonwealths. Three things I am taking away from this race  - Rebecca Adlington is still 2 seconds clear at the top of the world rankings this year. She is still the best female 800m Freestyle swimmer in the world. She will be ready for the Commonwealths.

- 800m Freestyle relay - This is an event we should have won and its great to see the four girls react the way they did. The Chinese, Australians and Americans will always produce great teams in this event and by London 2012 we need to get into the habit of winning relays. The quality we have is plain to see, we just need to learn to lift ourselves an extra percent or two like the Americans seem to be able to do on relays.  Unfortunately in Delhi, from a British perspective, the teams will be split up into England, Scotland and Wales.

European Swimming Championships - Preview Day 4

Apologies to all non-British readers, its Union Jack waving time at Speed Endurance. God save the Queen.

All fans of British swimming need to make sure they watch tonight's evening session of the European Swimming Championships as we could be in for a cracker.

- First up we have Dame Rebecca Adlington go in her favoured event, the 800m Freestyle. This will likely be Adlington's toughest test of 2010 as she goes up against last year's 800m Free world champion Lotte Friis as well as Federica Pellegrini (ITA), Olympic Champion in the 200m Free in Beijing and World Champion last year in the 200m and 400m Freestyle. Friis poses the most obvious threat as she has proven class in the 800m. Pellegrini on the other hand is some what of a wild-card over 800m but is currently the world's best over 200m and 400m Free.

Adlington is at a disadvantage as this competition isn't her main focus and whilst I'm sure Commonwealths are the main focus, I would not be surprised if Adlington has prepared more for this meet than some of the other British swimmers.

Reasons to be hopeful

• Nova Centurion team-mate Jessica Sylvester has been in pretty good form at this competition on the relays and individual events.

• Adlington's heat swim was solid, going out in a strong 4:11

• Adlington has already gotten the better of Friis once this year at the Barcelona leg of the Mare Nostrum tour. (8:21.25 to 8:23.76). In that race Friis set the pace with Adlington never letting her get more than a second away before taking over the race at the 600m mark.

- Hannah Miley has a real chance of picking up a second medal in the 200m IM final. Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and Camille Muffat (FRA) are the favourites for the top two positions. European Record holder Hosszu must still be hurting after her 400m IM defeat on home soil whilst Muffat has been one of the most impressive swimmers of 2010 so far, the French are also on fire in Budapest.

Miley will face further competition from Evelyn Verraszto (HUN) and Mireia Belmonte Garcia (ESP).

- Lizzie Simmonds and Gemma Spofforth could, and probably should, clinch a second British 1-2 in the 100m Backstroke.

Simmonds has been hugely impressive on her starts and turns and that could prove the difference against Spofforth. World Record holder Spofforth had a good 200m and swam a stunning 59.46 at British Nationals (0.03 second behind Simmonds) whilst still jet-lagged from a trans-atlantic flight.

Predicting the winner of this race is extremely tough. Gun to my head, I would go with Simmonds in 59-low.

- The British women's 4 x 200m Freestyle team will go into the race as strong favourites. The European record holders boast Rebecca Adlington, Jo Jackson (who looks like she is back to full fitness), Jazmin Carlin and Hannah Miley. However, the French team will push the Brits very hard. From the individual times posted this year, the French are slightly ahead of Britain. Britain's chances may rest on what sort of form Jo Jackson is in as she is a better swimmer than her 1:58.93 from this year indicates.

France

Muffat - 1:56.92
Balmy - 1:58.55
Cyrielle Etienne - 1:59.27
Farrell - 1:59.66
TOTAL - 7:54.40

Britain

Adlington - 1:57.87
Carlin - 1:58.51
Jackson - 1:58.93
Miley - 1:59.52
TOTAL - 7:54.83


Other competition will likely come from Hungary (Agnes Mutina, Katinka Hosszu, Eszter Dara, Evelyn Verraszto - combined time this year 7:56.82)

Strangely Italy, 4th at Worlds last year, haven't entered a team.



Coverage of tonight's swimming

Thursday 12 August
1500-1630, BBC Two/online
1600-1800, BBC Red Button/online
1555-1800, BBC 5 live sports extra

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.

Thoughts from the European Swimming Championships - Day Two

- I hereby crown Camille Lacourt with the prestigous Speed Endurance Swim of 2010... So Far award. (It probably ranks right up alongside breaking the European Record.)

The much sought after award had been held by Rebecca Soni's 2:21.41 200m Breaststroke from the Barcelona Mare Nostrum event. It was then snatched away last week by Ryan Lochte's stunning 1:54.86 victory over Michael Phelps in the 200m IM at US Nationals.

(Lochte must be fuming right now to only hold the title for less than a week, but the truth is that Lacourt's swim tonight eclipsed both Soni and Lochte.)

52.11.... in textile jammers... is out. of. this. world. In my eyes it has to be considered an even better swim than Aaron Peirsol's techsuit legs aided 51.94 from last year's US Nationals, which is the only swim faster than Lacourt's effort from tonight.

Lacourt is a giant of a man but combines his size and strength with a faultless, increbily smooth technique. If you missed the race, check it out below (updated video with the passionate French commentators)



I honestly believed that Liam Tancock's 52.85 had a chance of holding up until the end of the year as the world's fastest time. Guess I got that one wrong.

Lacourt adds a new element to future 4 x 100m Medley races at both European and World level. The French team now looks like Lacourt on Back, Hugues Duboscq on Breast, Clement Lefert or Fred Bousquet on Fly and Alain Bernard/Fabien Gilot on Freestyle. The only weak link on that team is the fly and should either Lefert/Bousquet/A.N. Other get down to 50/51 seconds on the 100m Fly, the French team would become a real danger to the Americans.

Chapeau Camille Lacourt!

- Alexander Dale Oen was only slightly behind when it came to the most impressive swim on day two. Dale Oen's 59.20 final winning time improved on his 59.29 from yesterday's semis and moves him to within 0.07 of Brendan Hansen's textile best time. Dale Oen went out quickly again splitting in 27.69 (0.03 seconds slower than last night) and looked strong throughout the race.

It will be fascinating to see how Brenton Rickard, Kosuke Kitajima, Mike Alexandrov and Ryo Tateishi respond at Pan Pacs in just a few days time. I'm not sure I can see them beating Dale Oen's time.

(You can also read Swimnews' take on the race which starts with the line, 'Alex Dale Oen (NOR) hated the shiny suits and couldn't wait for them to be gone'... seriously, enough already)

- Lizzie Simmonds and Gemma Spofforth took an extremely satisfying, if a little predictable, British 1-2 in the 200m Backstroke.

Simmonds (2:07.04) went out hard for the race and hung on at the end. Spofforth (2:08.25) had a much more evenly paced race.

The time is impressive for Simmonds although not as fast as she has been earlier this year. What I want to highlight are her starts and turns which were a league apart from the rest of the field tonight.

Starts, turns and underwaters have been a staple of US success for years. No-one does them better. However, Simmonds looks like the first British swimmer in this generation to have caught up with the very best America (and the world) has to offer. Possibly the only backstroker right now that can come close to her underwater is Natalie Coughlin.

- Quick prediction for tomorrow's 200m Free final. 1. Paul Biedermann. 2. Danila Izotov. 3. Sebastian Verschuren in a very close race. I think Verschuren has something special to give tomorrow and I hope he blasts the first 100m. Biedermann will need to not play games and get out in a 51 high if he wants to have a shot at going 1:44 which I think he can. Definitely the race of tomorrow night on paper.

- Finally... To all future race organisers in Europe. Please, please stop playing Right Said Fred - Stand Up after EVERY medal ceremony. It leads me to my next question... What is the ideal song to be played after medal ceremonies? Answers in the comment section please. Let's come up with a solution together.

Thoughts from US Nationals - Day Four and Five

Lets get straight to the bullets to finish off the US Nationals round-up...

- Is Ryan Lochte currently the best male swimmer on the planet? Yes.

Some facts:- Mark Spitz was the greatest swimmer of all-time. Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all time. Kosuke Kitajima is the greatest Breaststroker of all-time. Aaron Peirsol is the greatest Backstroker of all-time. In 2010, Ryan Lochte is the best swimmer in the world.

On Friday night I witnessed one of the greatest 200m IM swims of all-time. It had everything. A great race, personal significance for both Lochte and Phelps and a potential dawning of a new era. It also happened to be the fastest swim ever in a textile suit. (Lochte's 1:54.84 eclipses Michael Phelps' 1:54.98 from the World Championships in 2007).

One other thing the race had was Phelps getting blown away on a turn. Lochte's Fly-Back turn was unbelievable. If there was any debate on who is the best underwater swimmer in the world, I think it was answered during US Nationals this year.

Is it a surprise that Lochte has shone in 2010? One of the biggest benefits the suits offered was on the underwater section after starts and turns, now that we're back to a level playing field those who excel on underwaters will rise to the top once again.

(If you're interested in the statement 'one of the greatest 200m IM swims of all-time', the greatest 200m IM performance for me was Phelps winning the World Championships in 2003)


- Did Speed Endurance get a subtle shout-out from Mel Stewart on Swimnetwork's coverage of the 800m Free?



At 3"24 on the video above... "A lot of people were saying this after her 400m Free, you know what she had the fastest 400 Freestyle of any swimmer in the pool...swimming. But her turns, not there."

I'm not so sure about 'a lot of people', but I certainly said it and I stick by the statement.

Swimming is a sport of evolution and no-one can accurately predict what will happen in 2 months let alone 2 years but as it stands right now, Federica Pellegrini is the best 400m Free swimmer in the world. She has 100m speed that the other women can't match and enough stamina to last a 400m. She might even have enough for the 800m which we will find out over the next year or two.

The list of those capable of beating Pellegrini over 400m is pretty small. Britain's Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson look like the front-runners. France's Coralie Balmy and Camille Muffat could have a chance if they continue to improve, one of the Australian women might make the step-up. Katie Hoff is certainly well on her way back to top form and could get back on terms. I think Sutton needs to be on the list of potential 400m Free world beaters. She certainly has the swimming speed to compete already and it now becomes a question of technical improvement. An admirable quality Sutton possesses is how she reacts to this. Quoting Mel Stewart once again,

"I talked to Sutton about this and she said 'I know my turns aren't there but you know it gives me something to work on. I can feel positive about that."

Feeling positive when somebody points out something you're not doing as well as you could is the stuff of champions.


- Very pleased for Jessica Hardy making the Pan Pac team on the 100m Freestyle. Competing at her first Nationals for 2 years the meet had not been going well for her. Despite leading both the 50m Free and 100m Breast she fell off the pace in both races and her participation at Pan Pacs (and Worlds in 2011) was looking a little shaky. Against such a mentally tough backdrop, the second place finish in the 100m Freestyle becomes all the more impressive.

- The future looks bright for the US men's 1500m. Chad LaTourette should have plenty of years left but potentially even more exciting are the emergences of Sean Ryan, 17, and Arthur Frayler, 16. Ryan (15:04.84) and Frayler's (15:07.37) world top 10 times are extremely impressive for an event that tends to be dominated by more senior swimmers.

(Sceptical? Last year's World Champs finalists and birth years -
David Davies 1985, Zhang Lin 1987, Ryan Cochrane 1988, Sun Yang 1991, Oussama Mellouli 1984, Marco Rivera 1983, Federico Colbertaldo 1988, Samuel Pizzetti 1986)

- The women's 200m Breaststroke WR looks like its on borrowed time. It survived US Nationals, not sure it will make it through Pan Pacs.