• At the end of the Danish Open 2014 in Bellahøj tonight, the Danish swimming federation announced the 15 swimmers qualified for the LEN 2014 European Swimming Championships in Berlin.

    In another press release national coach Nick Juba commented: “I think that the trials have been efficient and successful, but also fairly predictable. Our ‘big hitters’ have raced unrested and have done as much as they have needed to do. They have still swam pretty fast, but will no doubt swim much faster when they need to.”

    • Rikke Møller Pedersen, Herning/NTC
    • Lotte Friis, Sigma Swim Allerød/USA
    • Jeanette Ottesen, Lyngby/NTC
    • Pernille Blume, Sigma Swim Birkerød/NTC
    • Mie Ø. Nielsen, Aalborg
    • Louise Dalgaard, Aalborg
    • Julie Levisen, Aalborg
    • Sarah Bro, Lyngby/NTC
    • Julie Aglund Lauridsen, Sigma Swim Allerød/NTC
    • Maj Howardsen, Sigma Swim Allerød
    • Daniel Steen Andersen, Horsens/NTC
    • Mads Glæsner, Sigma Swim Allerød/USA
    • Anton Ø. Ipsen, Sigma Swim Birkerød
    • Viktor B. Bromer, Aalborg
    • Daniel Skaaning, STT/VAT CPH/NTC

    The official squad will be announced next weekend, as Anders Lie Nielsen has been granted dispensation to try to qualify at a swim meet in USA.

  • At the 2014 Danish Open in Bellahøj tonight, Danish swimming prodigy Mie Ø. Nielsen shattered her own 28.51 Nordic record twice with first a prelim time of 28.28 in the 50 meter backstroke, and then a winning time of 27.96 in the final.

  • At the 2014 Danish Open in Bellahøj tonight, Rikke Møller Pedersen gave her own 200 breaststroke world record a good go with a winning time of 2:19.94, the world record 2:19.11 and the competition back in 2:28.90 and less.

    To celebrate this, she indulged herself in a pair of winegums

  • At the 2014 Danish Open in Bellahøj tonight, Danish swimming darling Pernille Blume rattled the Danish record with a winning time of 53.69 to Jeanette Ottesen’s 54.07, the Danish record of Ottesen from 2009 still standing at 53.41.

    Oh, and she is good-looking too

  • Read The Sydney Morning Herald

    Australian swim stars Cate and Bronte Campbell do not need to look far for grounding when they feel themselves caught up in ”first-world” problems. When they think things are getting too hard, their younger brother Hamish provides a timely reminder that  things are really not that bad.

    Hamish has cerebral palsy and the 15-year-old has the development of an one to three-year-old and requires around-the-clock care. But he appears perpertually happy.

    With the limited communication he possesses, whether it is a smile when he sees one of his sisters or when he delivers a well-timed noise that disrupts a family dispute, he brings joy and a sense of perspective to his parents and four sisters.

    ”Whenever we think that our lives are getting too hard, we look over at him and he can’t feed himself, he can’t clothe himself, he can’t go to the toilet by himself, he can’t tell us when he’s thirsty or he’s hungry, he can’t see and you think, ‘You know what? My life is pretty good’,” Cate says.

  • Read The Australian

    James Magnussen, Cate Campbell and Emily Seebohm are Australia’s “virtual world record holders’’. They are three fastest swimmers the world has seen, they just don’t have the official title to prove it.

    World 100m freestyle champions Magnussen and Campbell, and Brisbane backstroker Seebohm are the fastest swimmers ever in textile suits and are centimetres away from breaking records set during the notorious supersuit era.

    As Australian swimmers prepare for their first major meeting of the year, the Commonwealth Games trials in Brisbane starting Tuesday, hopes are growing that the proud swimming nation will once again reign supreme by holding an official world record.

    “Cate Campbell and James Magnussen would be world record holders if we never had those suits,” Australian head coach Jacco Verhaeren said.

    Image courtesy of Craig Franklin, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Image courtesy of Craig Franklin, CC BY-SA 3.0
  • We where lucky and found lost of this magnificent hunters in plain action, unfortunately for me, my underwater camera had some leaking and I decided to leave it on the boat.

    Fortunately, my friend Carlos Mendieta was kind enough to lend me his Go Pro Hero 3 Camera, which we used to take several shots that and make this video.

    The Sailfish´s dance in action from Iskander Itriago on Vimeo.

  • Read NY Daily News

    A small study by Howard Carter of the University of Western Australia School of Sport Science suggests that immersing the body in water to the level of the heart increases blood flow through the brain’s cerebral arteries, thus improving vascular health and cognitive function.

    “Studies on the positive effect of exercise on heart health have been numerous, but we are taking a different angle and are interested in the link between heart and brain health,” says Carter. “To our knowledge, ours is the first examination of the effect of graded euthermic [warm] water immersion on cerebral blood flow.”

    water photoPhoto by steve.garner32

  • jacco-verhaerenRead Sydney Morning Herald

    The Australian swim team would have a finalist in every Olympic race by the 2020 Games in Tokyo, if not by 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, new head coach Jacco Verhaeren has declared.

    Verhaeren, the former coach of Dutch Olympic champions Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn, was recruited to form a new tandem power structure within Swimming Australia with high performance director Mark Scott, the pair charged with rebuilding the team after a dismal performance in London.

    Verhaeren, who has been in the post since January, said he had identified several events where there is a lack of depth, despite having good performers within them,and they must be the focus of talent development if Australia was to achieve his public goal of becoming the best in the world by 2020.

    He will get his first look at how the Australian hopefuls stack up at the Commonwealth Games trials that start in Brisbane on Tuesday.

    ‘‘I think we know the gaps that are there to cover,’’ Verhaeren said.