Swimmer's Daily

  • Seven Championships Records bettered in swimming’s opening day

    The swimming competition has got under way at the European Championships in Berlin. The first day saw seven Championship Records falling and Velimir Stjepanovic (SRB) clinching the first swimming gold medal in the men’s 400m free, then Katinka Hosszu (HUN) defended her title in the 400m IM. The 4x100m free relay golds went to Sweden (women) and France (men) respectively. Russia opened the diving events with a gold in the team competition.


    [pullquote]Velimir Stjepanovic (SRB), Gold – 3:45.66:
    “I went out really fast but that’s the way I usually race. At the final 50m I saw the Italian coming but I told myself that there were only a couple of meters left so I had to give the maximum.”

    [/pullquote]

    Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic already stunned many with a magnificent swim in the morning in the men’s 400m free and in the final he managed to reach another gear. With some big guns falling in the heats – Yannick Agnel (FRA) and Paul Biedermann (GER) were among the victims – the youngsters could make their names and 21 year-old Stjepanovic lived up to the occasion. He started with a devastating speed, though the others chasing him seemed to get closer in the third 100m but the Serb had enough left in the tank, bettering Andrea d’Arrigo (ITA) and Jay Lelliott (GBR), both 19 years old, and earned the first title of the swimming events.

    [pullquote]Katinka Hosszu (HUN) Gold – 4:31.03 (CR):
    “I was dead by the end because went out very fast during the first 300m. Anyway, this is a step forward compared to my previous European title-winning time.”[/pullquote]
    Katinka Hosszu cracked the Championship Record in the heats (4:31.53) and went out with an unbelievable speed in the women’s 400m IM final, she was way below the WR split even after 300m but the pace burnt her speed for the free leg and she could just better the CR again (4:31.03), 0.72sec shy of her ER (clocked in a shiny suit).Championship Records were also set by Andriy Govorov (UKR, men’s 50m fly, heats: 22.87), Sarah Sjoestroem (SWE, twice, women’s 50m fly heats: 25.12 and semis: 24.87) and Adam Peaty (GBR, men’s 100m breast, semis: 58.68).

    [pullquote]Sarah Sjoestroem (SWE), Gold – 3:35.82:
    “This waiting on the pool deck knowing that one team is disqualified is a rather unique feeling. You never know with the relays. This time it was to our benefit.”[/pullquote]
    The 4x100m free relay among the women ended in a drama: the Danish reached the wall first but a failed take-over – the second one was recorded with –0.07sec – put them out of contest and the gold went to the Swedish. The men’s race brought the usual clash among France, Russia and Italy with the French prevailing again. They sailed home with a 1.03sec advantage, thanks to the splits of Florent Manaudou (47.54) and Jeremy Stravius (47.56), the two best individual efforts of the entire race (and enough for a new CR: 3:11.64). The battle for the silver was much closer, the Russians out-touched the Italians by 0.11sec.

    The diving competitions also got under way with the team event. It’s become a rather exciting duel between the Russians and the Ukrainians. The ‘match’ – Victor Minibaev, Nadezhda Bazina vs. Oleksandar Bondar, Yulia Prokopchuk – had its twists and turns by all means, the lead was constantly changing, and even though Bondar produced the dive of the day for 90.10 points in the penultimate attempt, Minibaev’s last dive was enough to secure Russia’s win.

    Press release from LEN

    Images courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu

  • Golden day for Reymond, Grimaldi, Romashina and Ukraine

    The final day of the open water and synchronised swimming events brought some fantastic performances of different types. While Axel Reymond (FRA) and Martina Grimaldi (ITA) were crowned the respective king and queen of endurance, Svetlana Romashina thrilled the spectators again with her magical routine in the synchro solo event and later the Ukrainians clinched their first ever synchro gold medal at the Europeans.

    As a coach put it at the regatta course in Grunau: to walk 25km is a demanding challenge – imagine how tough it is to swim that distance. Still, eighteen men and fifteen women lined up at the start, ready for those heroic efforts.

    In the men’s race no one seemed to wish to take the lead so it was rather strange that the males clocked weaker splits than the first ones of the women’s competition… Things changed after 5km, the men’s pack started to reach the normal gear – and after 10km Russia’s Yevgeny Drattsev and France’s Axel Reymond went a bit further. In fact, they started to leave the others behind and built a massive lead as they swam a brutally fast 5th lap with a split well under 28min (a fine feat even in a 10km race). At 15km it was clear that we would witness a two-horse race as these two enjoyed a 3min advantage over the others which grew lap by lap as they always stayed under 30min while the others couldn’t go that fast (at the end their winning margin was unusually huge, 9.30 minutes).

    Mostly Reymond swam in front, but before the final lap Drattsev was in the lead. However, the Frenchman had the better finish and reached the panel with a 12sec advantage ahead of the Russian. The pack fought for the bronze, and Italy’s Edoardo Stochino had the most reserves for the last metres, he reached the panel 1.6sec ahead of the hosts’ favourite Andreas Waschburger.

    The women’s race was much balanced, the leading group stayed together all the way long. Each lap saw a different name at the top of the actual classification and it was obvious that the last couple of hundreds metres would decide this magnificent race. Finally the first six came in within 30 seconds, at the end of an almost five and a half hour contest. Italy’s world title-holder Martina Grimaldi was too strong for the others, she didn’t take the lead at any of the previous laps but went in front in the last and won by 6.9sec. The fight for the silver was really gruelling between 39 year-old Angela Maurer (GER) and 20 year-old Anna Olasz (HUN), but the youngster didn’t let the chance go, she battled hard to out-touch the German by 0.4sec.

    The synchro events were also exciting but in a different way. In solo Svetlana Romashina’s superiority was unquestionable: the world champion Russian created a magnificent show again, her win was well-deserved as always. Later in the day she got a fine bonus: she received the 2013 LEN Award as the best synchro swimmer of the last year – the statue was handed over by the LEN President, Paolo Barelli.

    Back to the solo event, Spain – thanks to Ona Carbonell’s brilliant performance – managed to finish ahead of Ukraine (Anna Voloshyna was the new soloist for them in these Europeans). But it turned out to be a lonely occasion: just as in the duet and team event, the Ukrainians outperformed the Spaniards in the free combination as well. Since the Russians skipped the ‘combo’ this time, the gold medal was at stake in the evening session and it went to Ukraine. Their girls made a huge celebration after watching the scores: for the first time in history they became European champions. And since they entered all four events and earned medals in each they also won the Team Trophy, much to the delight of their fans.

    Press release from LEN

    Images courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu

  • So Saturday I visited the competition venue for the first time, and then attended the team leader’s meeting as representative of the Faroe Islands.

  • With their friendly faces and playful natures, it may seem that wild dolphins are always friendly.

    But a bottlenose dolphin has been reported to have deliberately pushed a man underwater while he was swimming in the sea off County Cork, in the Republic of Ireland.

    The animal is said to have ‘lashed out’ at the swimmer twice with its tail, prompting experts to warn swimmers to keep out of the water near the large predators.

    The incident occurred on July 26 off Sherkin Ireland, according to a report made to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) which stated that the animal acted ‘aggressively’. […]

    ‘Do not confuse the shape of their jawline with a smile. They can and do cause serious injury to humans and have killed in the past.’

    It is not known exactly why dolphins attack humans or large animals like porpoises as, unlike sharks, they do not eat their victim.

    An expert from the IWDG told BBC News that it is impossible to known if the dolphin was deliberately attacking the man, or if it was trying to play with him.

    Dolphins often engage in rough play, holding each other down and giving chase, so it is possible that the dolphin was playing, but some dolphin experts claim that the creatures sometimes attack humans when they are feeling amorous.

    Bottlenose dolphins can display violent mating practices where they act in groups to chase and mate with a female of their own species over weeks, whether she is interested or not.

    Male dolphins are also known to fight and kill rivals and offspring, suggesting they could also turn on humans mistakenly.

    Read MailOnline

    Photo by Just Taken Pics

  • Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh has completed the first of seven swims in the Seven Seas to highlight the need for protected areas in oceans around the world.

    The Devon-based swimmer will be the first to undertake a long-distance swim in each of the classical Seven Seas: the Mediterranean, Adriatic, Aegean, Black Sea, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and the North Sea, ending with a 62-mile (100km) swim up the Thames to Parliament.

    Read Western Morning News

  • The Dutch made it three, the Russians earned the first two

    The Dutch swimmers proved they were the ruling nation of the open water events at this year’s European Championships in Berlin by winning the team competition. The Russians also started to collect their gold medals in synchro: they got the respective titles in duet and in team.

    With two freshly crowned European champions in their line-up, the Netherlands started the 5km team event as the overwhelming favourites in Grünau: 10km gold medallists Sharon van Rouwendaal and Ferry Weertman were both at the start of the race, together with Marcel Shouten. However, the Greeks, the Germans, the Hungarians and the Italians all sent their best ones to the Long Lake to battle for the medals in the time trial.

    The regatta course showed a bit darker face this time with the air being a bit cooler than the water. All teams applied the two men-one woman format – which is not always the case in this event – and the splits after 2500m promised a thrilling end as the third member of the Dutch, the Greek and the German team crossed the line inside a 3-second gap.

    But the Dutch, already in the lead, managed to increase their speed and after clocking 27:59.9min in the first lap came home in 27:47.9, quite a devastating effort -which earned them a 17.7 advantage over the Greeks. Giannotis & Co. had an excellent race with two equally fine laps (28:01.8 and 28:03.7) and clinched the silver medal.

    The battle for the bronze turned out to be a really close call: the Germans slowed down in the second part while the Hungarians produced the second-best split of the entire race (27:58.5) and almost caught the hosts but at last they were 1.2sec shy of reaching the podium.

    In synchro the Russians did their job again. In the duet competition new pairs competed for the medals to bring some freshness to the pool. Daria Korobova and Svetlana Kolesnichenko did a great job, earned a couple of 9.9s for their free routine and won with a comfortable margin (6.1908 points). The Ukrainians managed to get ahead of the Spaniards for the first time: Lolita Ananasova and Anna Voloshyna were slightly better than the new line-up of Ona Carbonell and Paula Klamburg.

    Press release from LEN

    Images courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu

  • So I went to town, needing a thing or two for my camera. Jumped off the tram at Alexander Platz and walked to Potsdamer Platz via the Reichstag, and then back partly along the traces of the former Wall to the hotel at Landsberger Allé.

    It was a long walk.

  • The tourist was splashing around off the coast of Mexico’s Playa del Carmen when the deadly beast gave chase.

    Heart-stopping footage shows the man frantically trying to reach the shore as the predator moves in. […]

    Manuel Carrera captured the astonishing incident on camera and uploaded it to Facebook.

    See for instance NY Daily News

  • Ukraine nearing first ever synchro gold

    The only calmer day of the European Championships with no medals awarded, still,beautiful synchro events were held in the famous Schwimm- und Sprunghalle in Berlin.

    With a rest day held at the open water events, the eyes turned to the synchro competitions where some magnificent performances entertained the crowd in the morning session and during the evening as well.

    The solo free preliminaries saw another great show from Svetlana Romashina: the new Russian queen in synchro came up with her best again. As she was freed from the duet duties for this season, she had more time to focus on her solo routines. This is clearly visible in the results: before the final she already gained an almost 5-point lead over Ona Carbonell of Spain.

    As of today this is the only event where the Spaniards wait the final ranked ahead of the Ukrainians (Anna Voloshyna is sitting third in solo) as their rivals also got more points in the free combination prelims. In this event they eventually battle for the title as the Russians stayed away. Again, the gap between them is tiny, just 1.1334 points, but the Ukrainians gained on them in all three categories (execution, impression and elements) and now they are nearing to earn their first European gold medal ever in synchro. Here Italy is a close third, well ahead of the Greeks.

    Just as in the other two events – in duet and in team – great finals are in sight on Sunday.Tomorrow the first medals in synchro will be awarded while in open water the team event is up next.

    Images courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu