Swimmer's Daily

  • ‘It just takes one idiot,’ says British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan after 35-year-old (Australian) Trenton Oldfield swam into paths of the boats in the 158th London Boat Race yesterday, forcing it to be temporarily halted. Read The Guardian and The Telegraph

    “It just takes, and is likely to be, one idiot,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “It’s not likely to be a well-orchestrated campaign through Twitter or websites. It is likely to be someone similar to the idiot yesterday who causes major disruption. That is why all the security measures need to be put in place to minimize the chance of that happening.”

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  • As written here on SwimNews, the last day of national Japanese championships was a barren one as far at London 2012 qualification was concerned, closes call Takuro Fujii in the men’s 100 butterfly, 51.91 and second-fastest time in the world this year, far surpassing the FINA A cut of 52.36, but still almost a tenth of a second off the Japanese cut of 51.92. 27 swimmers were selected for the Japanese Olympic team, read SwimmingWorld Magazine here and here

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  • The EPFL LMAM‘s Physilog III has been mentioned here before, but now we have video of this inertial sensor system equipped with accelerometers and gyroscopes, sewn into a swimming suit that reminds us of the fiery red Jaked suits from days gone past. Read more here on Discovery.

  • The two swimming champions for the first time naked together in Vanity Fair. Him: ‘The woman of my life’. Her: ‘If he asked me to marry me right now, I would say yes’. See slideshow here on vanityfair.it (if you can handle it)

  • At the Japan Swim today, Ryosuke Irie clocked a sizzling 1:54.03 in the men’s 200 backstroke, behind only his own 1:54.02 in the world this year, with the rest of the world somewhere above 1:56. He and Kazuki Watanabe qualified for the London Olympics, Watanabe in 1:56.83. Satomi Suzuki posted a second-best time in the world this year of 2:22.99 in the women’s 200 breaststroke, qualifying together with Kanako Watanabe in 2:23.56. And in the men’s 200 IM, Kosuke Hagino qualified with a 1:58.01 Japanese junior record, Ken Takakuwa also qualifying in 1:58.20. Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • 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 :-)