The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ordered an increased six-month ban for 36-year-old Fabiola Molina, until April, after FINA appealed claiming that Brazilian authorities had treated her too leniently. Molina tested positive for Methylhexaneamine at the Brazilian trials for the 2011 World Championships last May, and was imposed a two-month ban from the Brazilian swimming federation, which cleared her to compete at the Pan-American Games last October in Guadalajara, where she won a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter medley. CAS has now ordered this to be increased to a six-month ban from December, less the two months she already served. Read The Washington Post
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3rd annual underwater world checkers tournament held in Janeda, Estonia
On Sunday January 15th, 42 divers from all parts of Estonia gathered for the 3rd annual ‘world’ underwater checkers championships. Players have six minutes per game, the checker pieces are made of lead, and last year they broke the Guinness world record with 55 contestants playing checkers underwater at the same time. Read NTN24
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Orange Bowl Swim Classic
Highlights from the 2012 Orange Bowl Swim Classic at Jacobs Aquatic Center in Key Largo, Florida, January 4th, 2012, courtesy of The Race Club. Featuring Norway’s Aleksander Hetland at 0:47, maybe Trinidad and Tobago’s George Bovell III at 0:54 and I think China’s Wu Peng at 1:08.
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WHY – A film by Corey Rich
As Dale Oen puts it on Facebook: “Wonderful video about why athletes do what they do”
WHY – Nikon D4 Release Video from Corey Rich on Vimeo.
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CC photo #21: Pál gets a kiss on the quay of Drelnes after Belgrade 2008
This is one of my favorite photos ( / swimming moments), despite of it being taken with a crappy DCR-HC96E camcorder meant for filming more than photography. A quay full of people in honor of the arrival of the island of Suðuroy’s triple 2008 European junior champion, Pál Joensen, and that little guy knows how to drive it home. Picture by the way taken only a few meters away from that picture yesterday, but now on dry land.
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Received a nice email from London this morning
Thanks John Tierney, for starting my day out on a positive note !
Here below is a Happy Christmas / Serpentine Swim Celebration song featuring John and two others from the Serpentine Swimming Club. You know, if we added a bass (/me) to that trio, it could be a proper barbershop quartet ! :-)
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A photo of Faroese weather from this week
This picture has been going viral these past two days, taken by Jóannis Sørensen on January 18, 2012 at Viðareiði in the Faroe Islands. He was on radio just now saying it had been shared about 2000 times already. He calls it “Where Nature Rules“.
My brother Bartal (the weather-interested geologist) sent me this weather satellite photo from the same day, with Faroe Islands looking like the evil belly button on top of the Earth.
It has been a tough winter, Bartal posted on Google+ on December 28th that we’d had 2 hurricanes (average windspeed above 33 m/s) and 3 storms (average windspeed above 25 m/s) only that (Christmas) week. If I sometimes seem a bit weak in energy here on the site, then you now know why. Sigh.
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Watch the WA States LIVE on Ustream, featuring Sullivan, Alshammar and others
Australia’s Swimming WA is live streaming its 2011-2012 SWA Open and Age LC Championships finals every night from January 17th to 21st 2012 starting at 5:45pm local time, featuring for instance Blair Evans, Eamon Sullivan, Matt Abood, Geoff Huegill and Sweden’s Therese Alshammar. Other news disclose that Geoff Huegill has had his training disrupted by a series of viruses, saying over-training was partly to blame.
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CC photo #20: A final talk before the Jóansøku 2011 swim
Two guys having a final chat before the Jóansøku 2011 open water swim across the Tvøroyri firth in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands. As you see, we are not following the open water rules strictly, when it comes to gloves and caps and snorkels etc. But then again, with the water temperature seldom over 7ºC (44.6ºF), it will never really be a normal, rules-abiding open water swim.
