Alberto Pinto Silva, coach to Olympic 50m free champion Cesar Cielo in Brazil, has described as foolish the fact that his country has no Omega OSB11 ramp starting blocks of the kind that will be used this summer in Shanghai and next summer in London when his charge defends the World and Olympic titles respectively. Read more here on SwimNews.com.
They are testing some kind of Brazilian version, that Pinto says has a different gradient. “The angle of the ramp (track-start platform at the back of the block) is different. It seems like foolishness, but we are talking about the world record holder.”
I must say that it is amazing, that a huge country like Brazil doesn’t have a single OSB11 starting block, compared to my home country of Faroe Islands with a population of 50.000 people now having them installed in two of our three 25 meter pools. Yes, they cost a bit of money, but you need them, if you are to practice perfect starts!
