Swimmer's Daily

  • 15-year-old Danish swimming sensation Mie Ø. Nielsen has in one year gone from talent to possible candidate for an Olympic final, having posted 28 Danish junior records from March 31st 2011 to March 31st 2012, and now a 59.69 Olympic qualifying Danish and Nordic record in the women’s 100 backstroke. Her Icelandic coach Eyleifur Jóhannesson is of course extremely happy with her progress, “Now after big countries like Australia, Canada, Spain and Great Britain have had their Olympic qualifications, Mie is still number 4 in the world ranking this year. USA is still missing, but I think she will still be in top-10 when all spring meets are over.” Now she will be training almost continuously on camps, only 3½ week at home in Aalborg from May 16 until the Olympics. Read more here on Politiken (if you can, it is in Danish)

    DSC01439

    (Mie and Leifi at the Stockholm 2010 World Cup)

  • At the Chinese Nationals today, Sun Yang cruised to a world top-ranked time of 3:42.31in the men’s 400 freestyle, qualifying for the Olympics together with Hao Yun in 3:46.01. Shao Yiwen and Xin Xin qualified in the women’s 400 freestyle in 4.05.88 and 4.05.93 respectively, Ye Shiwen and Zheng Rongrong in the women’s 200 IM with 2:09.43 and 2:12.18 respectively, Tang Yi with a 53.71 in the women’s 100 freestyle, and Cheng Feiyi with a Chinese record in the men’s 100 backstroke, 53.67, ahead of also qualifying He Jianbin in 54.25. On a side note, local Chinese media swarmed Sun Yang after his swim, apparently expecting a world record every time he enters the pool. Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • Silver medallist Alexander Dale OenNorway’s world champion Alexander Dale Oen has been suffering from a pinched nerve and some cartilage damage to his shoulder, forcing him to stay away from hard training, and from competing at the British Trials and Debrecen 2012 Europeans. He is out of pain now when not stressing the shoulder, but suffers when doing any hard work with his arm, and the Norwegians have therefore questioned whether he would go to altitude camp with the rest of the Norwegian team, leaving in a few days. But according to bt.no the decision has now been made that he will go, after an assessment that it will be easier to let him acclimatize and if needed send him back home again, than to send him over later.

    (Image courtesy of Helgi Halldórsson, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

  • At the Japan Swim today, Kosuke Kitajima posted a scorching 58.90 in the men’s 100 breaststroke, breaking his own ‘supersuited’ Japanese and Asian record of 58.91 from the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Ryo Tateishi also qualified for the Olympics in this event, with a time of 59.60. Yuka Kato set a Japanese record in the women’s 100 butterfly, with a time of 57.77 where her record from the 2011 Japanese Nationals was 57.80. And several others posted time within the faster-than-FINA-A Japanese Olympic cut in the semis, read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

    (Fantastic quality video from the swim, with double target time lines. But also warning: Extreme closeup nipple shot, maybe too strong for the Americans :-)

  • According to Danish newspaper Politiken, the Danish Swimming Federation has decided to drop their participation at the European Long Course Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, choosing instead the Sette Colli Trofeo in June as the last resort for Kathrine Holm Sørensen and Mathias Gydesen to qualify for the Olympic team. It is the first time in history that the Danes do not send anyone to the Europeans, the decision based upon 4 weeks being too little time to peak again after the Danish Trials.

    Another interesting comment in that story is, that the men’s 4×200 final at Debrecen 2012 will be deciding whether Spain, Sweden and Italy will qualify for the Olympics in this event, maybe pushing Denmark out.

    And, it doesn’t seem finally settled that Mathias Gydesen needs to qualify at the Sette Colli, there is talk of a possible pre-selection when the Danish Swimming Federation meets with the Danish Olympic Committee and Team Danmark to evaluate his near-Olympic qualification result at the Indy Grand Prix.

    According to the news item, Sørensen and Gydesen will be joined by the Danish Olympic team minus Mie Ø. Nielsen at Sette Colli, who will go to the European Junior Championships in Antwerpen instead. I’m guessing that maybe, just maybe, the Danes will allow Mads Glæsner to try for a last shot at Olympic qualification in the 1500 freestyle, with him and the rest coming directly from altitude training in Flagstaff.

  • Me and Jón Brian Hvidfeldt, professional reporter and good friend, commentating the 2009 Faroese (Short Course) Championships. Still the main event here in the Faroes because, well, we don’t have any long course pools yet. I think the monitor shows our big star Pál Joensen and young gun Magnus Jákupsson, so that’s a lucky shot that Bartal got here.

    At work at the 2009 Faroese Championships

  • Stewardess Tara Hawkes, 23, had been swimming with guests from the luxury cruise ship True North in a fresh water pool at Talbot Bay, about 200km north of Broome and was standing in waist deep water when at 2m crocodile attacked, latched onto her leg and tried to drag her back in. That’s when passenger Michael Fletcher and a crew member know only as ‘Big Al’ came to her rescue. ‘Big Al’ jumped onto the croc back, while Fletcher put his hands into its mouth to pry its jaws apart, the whole situation turning into a ‘terrifying tug-of-war’ until they managed to drag her to safety. The Department of Environment and Conservation said it would be “pointless” to trap and remove the crocodile which attacked Ms Hawkes as another would soon take its place. Read more here on thewest.com.au

  • At the Japan Swim today, Kosuke Hagino set a new national and Asian record in the men’s 400 IM, with a 4:10.26 clipping Yuya Horihata in 4:10.52, the Japanese Olympic cut being 4:14.72. In the women’s 400 IM, Miyu Ohtsuka and Miho Takahashi qualified in 4:36.64 and 4:37.71, and in the men’s 100 breast semifinal, Kosuke Kitajima posted a sizzling world-best time this year of 59.31. Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • Danish newspaper Politiken has this article on Mathias Gydesen’s situation now after missing out on an Olympic qualification with only 1 hundredth of a second, when he at the Indianapolis Grand Prix last weekend broke the Danish and Nordic record in the men’s 100 backstroke with a time of 54.41, the FINA A cut being 54.40.

    He’s asked the Danish swimming federation to let him qualify anyway, preferably without having to try again at the Debrecen 2012 Europeans in May, and the High Performance Manager at the Danish Swimming Federation, Lars Sørensen doesn’t sound completely dismissive. One of the problems is though, that Gydesen’s time of 54.41 was set during prelims, where the rules at the Danish Trials stated specifically that you had to make your qualifying time in the finals. Gydesen got a dispensation to try and qualify at the Indy Grand Prix rather than the Danish Trials.

    “Together with Olympic chief Jesper Frigast and Team Denmark, we must evaluate his performance. It could be an Olympic selection since he was so close, or we could choose to give Mathias a new chance at the European Championships in May. To the the assessment will be included, that he swam slower in the final, “said Lars Soerensen.