April 24 - 29
This week at the Maria Lenk Trophy Cesar Cielo gets his first chance to respond to rival James Magnussen's startling times set at the Australian Olympic trials.
As we saw last October, Cielo changed his race tactics in the 100m Free as a result of Magnussen's back end speed. At Pan Ams (at altitude) Cielo's stand out swim was his 47.04 relay split with a final 50m split of 24.53, a big shift in strategy from his homecoming split of 25.38 from Shanghai.
Unfortunately for the Brazilian, Magnussen still has the same back end speed he had in Shanghai and has added the front end speed to match (Magnussen's splits: 22.68 / 24.42 (47.10) ).
As it stands now on the eve of the Maria Lenk trophy, Magnussen is still a relay takeover faster than Cielo.
Psych Sheet
Competition Schedule
Results
Live Streaming - Showing finals at 19:00 BRT / 1:00am BST (h/t to swimswam for the video find)
Other Highlights:
Thiago Pereira - One of the most consistent performers over the last few years in the 200m IM & 400m IM, needs to bounce back after a disappointing World Champs.
Fred Bousquet - Must still be sore after missing out on London, and goes up against his nemesis Cielo.
Bruno Fratus - Has emerged as one of the few men that can swim consistently sub-22 seconds over 50m Free, his semi final time of 21.76 in Shanghai would have been good enough for silver in the final, however he couldn't reproduce that form and ended up 5th.
Marcelo Chierighini - The sprinter with bags of raw talent has had an extended period of time at Auburn under Brett Hawke to hone his craft, it's time to see what time he can put up in the 100m Free.
Felipe Silva - The 50m speedster has shown the ability to make a splash in the 100m. His 1:00.01 from the heats of Shanghai highlighted his ability, but he underwhelmed in the semi final with a 1:00.73.
Jeanette Ottesen / Lotte Friis / Laure Manaudou / Mireia Belmonte - All four European women have qualified for London and it will be interesting to see where they are with their training 100 days out.
Cielo was a bit pissed in Press interview, i wonder if Magnussen told something directly to him.
ReplyDeleteFelipe Silva is around 10 kilograms lightier than he was in World Champs.He is staying away from McDonalds...
Could you elaborate on how he seemed pissed, and what Magnussen would have to do with that?
ReplyDeleteWasn't Silva supposed to have already lost a bunch going into Worlds? Has he lost like 20kg total?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone here ever heard about Daniel Ozrechowski ? He just clocked 24"66 & 24"44 on the 500 Back (& has previously done a 24"78 back in December) but I've never heard of him (and he's already 27 so I assume he's not quite a newcomer)
ReplyDeletejohn, someone erased my older comment!(Maybe was too big???)
ReplyDeleteBasically, i think someone told to Cielo Magnussen told will take him down(even in 50free) and he was a bit unhappy about it.
http://noticias.bol.uol.com.br/esporte/2012/04/24/cielo-quer-estabelecer-melhor-marca-do-ano-nos-50-metros-livre-antes-da-olimpiada.jhtm
I think there is a lot of media misdirection down here making a rivalry bigger than it is.
About França, he was 108KG in Worlds, and now 98KG(he wants 97KG in Olympics), and if you talk about since 2009 the answer is YES, he lost probably more than 20 kilograms.
Daniel is well know swimmer, but like Guilherme Guido, had a thing to like too much the lanes in the pool.It seems he corrected that.
LOL at Brazilian media.
ReplyDeletenever heard Magnussen saying anything directly or indirectly about Cielo.
The only comment by Magnussen that is remotely about Cielo is that Magnussen publicly said that he plans to take down Cielo's WR in the 100.
Magnussen was even surprised of his own 50 free speed and no way he told somebody that he will take down Cielo in the 50. If he had, that comment would have made huge news across the aussie media as swimming is much bigger in australia than in brazil.
And if Cielo is already that upset just because he heard something from somebody that magnussen allegedly said something like that, then Cielo needs to train himself to be more emotionally stable and not to get that easily disturbed.
ReplyDeleteHeats of the 50m freestyle, Bruno fratus 21s70, Cesar Cielo 21s78 and
ReplyDeleteFred Bousquet 21s93. Tonight will be the end of this proof. I guess that goes to Cielo 21s40!(google translate)
For more details, with complete coverage of the event: http://sportv.globo.com/site/eventos/trofeu-maria-lenk/noticia/2012/04/mais-rapido-que-cielo-e-bousquet-fratus-domina-previas-dos-50m-livre.html
ReplyDeleteVideo of Daniel Orzechowski with a new South America record of 50m backstroke, time 24s44, best time in the world in 2012: http://globotv.globo.com/sportv/esportes-aquaticos-sportv/v/daniel-orzechowski-leva-o-ouro-nos-50m-costas-do-trofeu-maria-lenk/1918187/
ReplyDeleteCesar Cielo talks about Magnussen in the 100m free and says it will do the best time of your life in Maria Lenk Trophy: http://sportv.globo.com/site/eventos/trofeu-maria-lenk/noticia/2012/04/quase-100-cielo-revela-meta-ideia-e-fazer-o-melhor-tempo-da-vida.html
ReplyDeleteIs there any information on the weather. Is it ideal for some fast times tonight? I think no matter what Fratus does, there's gong to be a question mark beside his name regarding major competitions. Even if he goes 21.5 tonight, I'd have reservations of thinking he'd medal in London because he was unable to back up his 21.7 semis swim in the Shanghai Finals.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad because he's a huge upcoming talent, and even if he doesn't improve on his 21.7 tonight, he is already definitely a medal candidate.
Cesar Cielo in 50m freestyle shattered! 21s38!! Bruno Fratus 21s76 and Fred Bousquet 21s79! Bousquet was much better than the other two French classifieds for London.
ReplyDeleteCielo 21s38!!!!! Spectacular! (by google translate)
aswimfan,
ReplyDeletethe reporter told in his face Magnussen told that.He is a bit locked out of internet, just doing(rare) updates in his facebook-twitter accounts.Of course he will be pissed(even if is untrue).It looks is working... he told he will beat his textile bests untapered, and at least, he got 50.Lets see if he does better than his 47.84
Pereira made 1.57.11, but he was clearly pissed with his time.
Pereira said he wanted to make time in the house of 1min:56s, so can give more confidence to London, but was pleased with his time and said that until the Olympiad will be even faster. (google translator)
ReplyDeleteJames Magnussen said during the week of the Aussie Trials he was aiming to swim a 22.2 in the 50free. After the swim, he expressed how unexpected the 21.7 was, and that he could possibly revise expectations for this event. I think he was too surprised at his times in this event to be anywhere near boastful
ReplyDeleteI believe that, given how much time Cielo usually drops through full taper, that to be any sort of challenge to Magnussen at his best in London, Cielo will probably need to go sub48, probably under 47.8. The only likely places this could happen is here in a few days, and in the Paris Open.
Lastly, I think most of the times in most events are approaching or have surpassed the times achieved in 08. I think my the Olympics, we will see the majority of them matched or replaced. This is truly exciting
DDias,
ReplyDeleteeven if, in the highly unlikely event, that Magnussen said he will take down Cielo in 50, why would it make Cielo that upset?
I don't understand. Cielo is not a child anymore, but he seems to be not so emotionally stable.
swimfan is not that he is upset on a bad way.
DeleteIt´s more like he take that as an challenge and trying to show to mag and the world that this is my event and I will show everyone
aswimfan,
DeleteEVERY swimmer will be pissed if confronted in his PET event.Remember Phelps-Cavic?Was Phelps emotionally stable at that time???
And the fact is:Cielo loves a challenge.He can built a strong force when someone challenge him.As i told, i think was a lot of media misdirection, but he doesn t know about that...
Other day, some newspaper was telling he was going to beat Textile Records, when i saw his interview and he told he wants to beat HIS textile personal bests in Maria Lenk.Thats a lot of diference...
DDias, I just google translated the article that pedro provided where Cielo was interviewed.
DeleteThe journalist was trying to provoke Cielo and saying that Magnussen is doing all he can to break his 100 WR, but it doesn't seem that Cielo was too upset (it is written article, so I cannot gauge his real reaction), but nowhere it says that Magnussen claimed he's going to take down Cielo in 50 free.
Maybe it is Cielo's fans who like to provoke LOL.
Pedro,
ReplyDeleteThanks much for your updated news tidbits from Maria Lenk. Very insightful!
Thank you! The Coach's blog, the blog about competitive swimming most visited Brazil, examines the outputs of the sprinters Fred Bousquet, Cielo and Fratus.
DeleteLink: http://sportv.globo.com/platb/blogdocoach/2012/04/25/analisando-as-saidas-dos-melhores-velocistas-do-mundo/ (use google translate to read in English! hehe)
predict the 2012 olympic swimming
ReplyDeletehttp://predict-now.blogspot.com/