Month: April 2008

SwimNews’ Craig Lord compared the performance gains of 450 swimmers now wearing the LZR Racer at Manchester 2008, and found that more than 400 of them were clustered in an approximate range from 1.6% to 2.3%. Presented to a professor who spends his life looking at probabilities, the answer was clear: Without a shadow of a doubt … if you have that kind of result in a medical experiment, you’d be looking at ‘case proven’. Read more here on SwimNews.com.

Austria’s Markus Rogan lowers the 200 backstroke world record from Ryan Lochte’s 1:49.05 to 1:47.84. Croatia’s Sanja Jovanovic lowers own 50 backstroke world record from 26.50 to 26.37. USA’s Ryan Lochte lowers own 100 IM world record from yesterday’s 51.25 to 51.15. Australia’s Felicity Galvez lowers Libby Lenton’s 100 butterfly world standard of 55.95 to 55.89, Netherlands’s Marleen Veldhuis betters own world 50 freestyle record from 23.58 to 23.25, and Russia sets world record in men’s 400 medley relay with the time of 3:24.29, where USA’s now former world record was 3:24.38.

Here is the men’s 100 IM final in Italian:

And the 200 backstroke of Markus Rogan in German (Austrian?)

Or more specific, from the official FINA website:

In regards to the swimwear material, the discussion clarified that there was a broad understanding between the manufacturers and FINA that the rules were not meant and should not be interpreted as limiting the materials to fabrics stricto sensu but that other material could be used, as has already been the case for several years.

FINA confirmed that all the swimsuits approved so far are complying with the specifications.

Read a lot more about this here on SwimNews. And notice that no, you probably cannot just copy Speedo, since they according to SwimNews have registered some 13 patents on their suit.

The world record tally is now 12 at the 2008 FINA World Short Course Championships in Manchester, after United State’s Ryan Lochte set a new 100 IM world standard of 51.25, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry took more than a second and a half of the 200 IM world record in a time of 2:06.13, and the Netherlands improved their womens 400 freestyle world record with almost 4 seconds, clocking 3:29.42. Read more about it here, here and here on SwimInfo.

19 long-course and 11 short-course world records have now fallen since the launch of the Speedo LZR Racer swim suit in February, of which the LZR was worn in all but one long-course and 2 short-course events.

In the remaining record breaking events, the swimmers wore other brands of high tech full-body swimsuits.

According to the CNN, U.S. head coach Mark Schubert believes that every record in the sport could fall at the Beijing Olympics.

The technology advantage of the new Speedo’s is so big, that according to TimesOnline, the main rivals have let it be known that they will not penalise athletes who wear other apparel when racing for a national team sponsored by Speedo.

Croatia’s Duje Draganja has set a new world record in the 50 SCM freestyle event, clocking 20.81 where Sweden’s Stefan Nystrands world mark was 20.93. And USA’s Ryan Lochte bettered the 200 SCM IM world record with a time of 1:51.56, more than a second faster than Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh’s world record of 1:52.99. Read here and here on SwimInfo.

Here is the men’s 50 freestyle final in Croatian. I found it in English too, but it is just not the same as hearing those Croatians scream their lungs out :-)

Australia’s Felicity Galvez has set a new world record in the short course 50 meter fly at Manchester 2008, with the time of 25.32, a hundredth of a second faster than the now former world record of 25.33, that Sweden’s Anna-Karin Kammerling set in 2005. See SwimInfo and SwimNews.

Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry has improved the 200 SCM backstroke world record with more than 3 seconds, when she and Great Britain’s Elizabeth Simmonds went under Japan’s Reiko Nakamura world standard of 2:03.24 from February. The new world record is 2:00.91. Read about it on SwimNews and SwimInfo.