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.
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.
Gossip alert, out of Woman’s Day …
Eamon Sullivan hasn’t been lucky in love since ending his two-year relationship with golden girl Stephanie Rice on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. But things may be looking up for the handsome swimmer, who was spotted flirting up a storm with his former girlfriend just a week ago at a fashionable pizza restaurant on Sydney’s northern beaches.
“They were laughing and giggling a lot,†reports a fellow diner at the popular Manly Wharf eatery. “They sat opposite each other and there was definitely some sort of chemistry. Stephanie was really animated and joked as she handed him the menu. He seemed a little more reserved, but he was smiling.â€
On the final day of Canadian Olympic Trials, Sinead Russell smashed her Canadian record in the 200 backstroke, managing a 2:08.04 where her record from Shanghai 2011 was 2:08.80. Hilary Caldwell also went under the Olympic qualification standard with a 2:09.14. Brent Hayden qualified in the men’s 50 freestyle with a time of 22.16, Victoria Poon with a 25.03 in the women’s 50 freestyle, Andrew Ford with a 2:01.18 in the men’s 200 IM, and Ryan Cochrane with a 15:09.80 in the 1500 freestyle. Read more here on swimming.ca and see result lists here.
A Greek swimmer giving me a total ‘aha’ moment while cooking in the sun on the athlete’s stand at the FINA 2009 World Championships in Rome, Italy. They know a lot more about keeping cool in the sun, than us the Faroese. Really.
In the underwater horror game Deep Sea, you strap on a mask that takes away your vision and limits your breathing, to start fighting alien monsters in the abyss by trying to localize, aim and fire at them using only your hearing, to the point where you have to surpress your breathing in order to hear. Sounds simple, but some people really freaked out at the stand, hands shaking and not wanting to talk about the experience, while another described intense feeling of claustrophobia and his Chtulhu-esque monsters conjured up by his imagination.
Read more here on Gamasutra
