Swimmer's Daily

  • Part of the gift bag for swimmers and the rest of us at the Istanbul 2009 European Short Course Championships was a decanter for each of us filled with pool water. Label says “The pool water of 13th European Short Course Swimming Championship 10-13 December 2009”.

    A bottle of pool water from Istanbul 2009

  • The annual race between Cambridge University and Oxford was interrupted at the midway point today when a man in wetsuit moved between the boats and was almost hit by one of the Oxford oar blades, Oxford then slightly ahead. After a delay of about 30 minutes, the race was restarted near the midway point, Oxford momentarily regaining its lead before a clash of boats resulted in them breaking an oar, Cambridge then cruising to victory against only 7 rowers on the Oxford boat. Oxford bow man, Alexander Wood, was carried off the boat after the race and given medial treatment. The swimmer has been identified as Trenton Oldfield who studied contemporary urbanism at the London School of Economics, and who has a website called Elitism Leads to Tyranny which discusses civil disobedience tactics. All in a day’s work, as they say in England.

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  • At the Chinese Long Course Nationals today, Sun Yang put his foot down and cruised to a 14:42.30 in the men’s 1500 freestyle, easily the fastest in the world this year, and even more easily qualifying for the Olympics. Hao Yun placed second in 14:58.44, while the silver medalist from the Beijing 2008 Olympics Zhang Lin was reportedly 6th in 15:17.97. Sun Ye and Liu Xiaoyu were quickest in the women’s 100 breaststroke, clearing the FINA A cut in 1:07.30 and 1:07.88 respectively, while only Yin Fan managed this in the women’s 50 freestyle with a time of 25.24. In the women’s 200 backstroke, Yu Yaping and Bai Anqi were fastest in 2:09.71 and 2:10.05, under the FINA A cut, but let’s see, China has stated that this meet is not the final deciding point for the Olympic team, read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • At the Märsky-uinnit 2012 yesterday, Finland’s Emilia Pikkarainen set a new Finnish record in the women’s 100 meter (long course) butterfly, clocking 59.07 in the morning heats and closing in fast on the FINA A Qualifying time of 58.70. Her old record was 59.26 from the Swedish Grand Prix 3 meet in Stockholm in March, the record before that a 59.39 from (I think) the Finnish National Championships in 2009. Suomen Uimaliitto via simma.nu/fi

    lost and found

    (Pikkarainen and Joensen at the Barcelona Airport en route to the Mare Nostrum meet in 2010, demonstrating the travel luck of Jón Bjarnason … luggage lost. Sorry Emilia, but this was the best picture I could find right now :-)

  • According to SwimSwam, the French are sending 41 swimmers the the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary in May, including Frédérick Bousquet and Sébastien Rouault who missed out on Olympic participation, and their entire Olympic team. With Germany taking 32 and Great Britain sending only 5, this might the largest team at the Championships.

    Women: Fanny Babou, Coralie Balmy, Charlotte Bonnet, Justine Bruno, Alexianne Castel, Cloé Credeville, Sophie de Ronchi, Ophélie-Cyrielle Etienne, Margaux Farrell, Camille Gheorghiu, Lara Grangeon, Marie Jugnet, Mylène Lazare, Laure Manaudou, Aurore Mongel, Camille Muffat, Aurélie Muller, Anna Santamans.

    Men: Yannick Agnel, Alain Bernard, Lorys Bourelly, Frédérick Bousquet, Jordan Coelho, Hugues Duboscq, Dorian Gandin, Fabien Gilot, Damien Joly, Camille Lacourt, Clément Lefert, Amaury Leveaux, Grégory Mallet, Florent Manaudou, Mehdy Metella, William Meynard, Anthony Pannier, Giacomo Perez Dortona, Eric Ress, Sébastien Rouault, Romain Sassot, Benjamin Stasiulis, Jérémy Stravius.

    (The ones in bold are Olympic qualified)

  • At the Chinese Long Course Nationals today, Jiao Liuyang and Gong Jie qualified for the Olympics in 2:05.18 and 2:05.38, Olympic gold medal winner Liu Zige 3rd in 2:07.37, all not decided yet, it seems, but not looking good for Zige. Sun Yang made the squad with a 1:46.05 in the men’s 200 freestyle, 2008 Beijing Olympic silver medallist in the 1500 freestyle Zhang Lin not even qualifying for the finale apparently because of asthma problems. Yang Zhixian qualified in the men’s 400 IM with a time of 4:11.92. Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • At the Chinese Long Course Nationals yesterday, Wu Peng won the men’s 200 IM in 1:59.50, qualifying for the Olympics along with Yang Zhihe in 1:59.83. Lu Ying and Jiao Liuyang qualified in the women’s 100 butterfly with 57.48 and 57.80 respectively, and Zhou Jiawei in the men’s 100 butterfly with a time of 52.26. Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • Nada Arkaji is set to be the first female swimmer to represent her country Qatar at the Olympic Games in London. She will join other female hopefuls wanting to represent Qatar at the games this summer. “I am so proud that I am the only swimmer to represent my country and I hope I will achieve good results. I do encourage girls to carry on with any sports activity, especially swimming.” Read more here on Al Arabiya

  • Scary article here on BeyondChron, adapted from the ebook “PENN STATE IN THE POOL: The Cover-Up of the USA Swimming Youth Coach Sex Abuse Scandal,” which will be published shortly, see also concussioninc.net

    “The highly publicized recent cases at Penn State and Syracuse involved a comparative handful of victims of a single coach. USA Swimming has an estimated hundreds of victims of dozens of coaches. Other than the Catholic Church, no other known organization harbored more pedophiles than USA Swimming. And no other organization, on a pro rata basis, comes close in terms of the number of reported sexual molesters.”