Swimmer's Daily

  • After having to cancel the Japanese Long Course Championships due to the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe, the Japanese swimming federation still managed to put together a high qualify Shanghai 2011 trials meet in Hamamatsu.

    Yosuke Miyamoto became the first Japanese to swim under 15:00 in the men’s 1500 freestyle, with a 14:57.56, compared to Ryoji Sononaka’s 15:04.91 back in 2009.

    Natsumi Hoshi dropped the national record in the women’s 200 butterfly with a 2:06.05, where Yuko Nakanishi’s record from 2008 was 2:06.38.

    Haruka Ueda managed a 1:57.37 in the women’s 200 free, where her national record from 2009 was one hundredth of a second slower, 1:57.38.

    There were also three world’s best this year, with Takeshi Matsuda beating out Michael Phelps himself with a 1:54.12 in the 200 butterfly, compared to Phelps’ 1:55.34 from the Indy Grand Prix. Aya Terakawa set a world’s best this year in the 100 back with a 59.17, compared to Belinda Hockings’ 59.55 from earlier this week. And Kosuke Kitajima set a world’s best in the 100 breaststroke with a 59.44, beating out Yuta Suenaga’s 59.93 from Tokyo in February.

    And this was only the first day of the meet.

    Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • Australia has ripped up the national selection standards for the world championships in Shanghai in July after only 34 swimmers reached the tough times in Sydney this week. That gave 11 swimmers – seven men and four women – unexpected tickets to Shanghai, including Commonwealth Games gold medallist Geoff Huegill. National head coach Leigh Nugent explained the about-face by saying the panel had decided to pick a larger team to develop fringe candidates for next year’s Olympic team. Read The Australian.

    “The aim of setting our own qualifying times was to raise the standard of performance and competition nationally, and we have certainly seen that in a number of events over the last eight days,” Nugent said. “With two Australian records and a handful of world class times, the performances bode well for the world championships in July and we have also selected the team with an eye to further developing athletes in the lead-up to London.”

  • Surreal news here in the Boston Herald:

    Lorraine Jablecki often used the Sandwich High School swimming pool in the morning to soothe her aching back.

    Her doctor told her water aerobics would help her three bulging discs. And for the East Sandwich woman it did, allowing her to feel and function better throughout the day.

    But since March 28, adults have not been allowed access to the swimming pool during the school day. Supt. Mary Ellen Johnson eliminated access to the pool for adults in the Sandwich Community School programs from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. after a parent objected that her son was naked in a locker room at the same time an adult from the swim program was showering naked.

    Read the full story here in the Cape Cod Times.

  • US-based Lauren Boyle set a new kiwi national record at the New Zealand championships last night, winning in 8:33.30, more than 2.5 seconds under the FINA ‘A’ qualifying time, and more than 2 seconds quicker than the record set by Phillipa Langrell at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Interesting to read that she set her first national record as a 13-year-old in the 50, and has since gradually moved up the distances, until now as a 23-year-old she wants to try out the 800. Read The New Zealand Herald.

  • Belinda Hocking chased down the Australian record in the women’s 200 back today at the Australian Nationals, with a winning time of 2:06.88. Meagen Nay previously held the record with a 2:07.41 set back in 2009. Read more here on SwimmingWorld Magazine.

  • Breaking news from the Speed Endurance Twitter feed. Accordingly to sports.sohu.com, Sun Yang ‘only’ managed a 14:42.52 in the 1500 freestyle, today at the Chinese Nationals in Wuhan. 8 seconds from his Chinese and Asian record, and about 9 from the world record. The time is well and clearly the best time in the world this year, with world and olympic champion Oussama Mellouli in second spot with 15:01.65 from the US Grand Prix in February. Read more now also on SwimNews.com.

  • At this moment, the holy grail of swim reporting would be an online live video feed from the Chinese Nationals men’s 1500 freestyle final. This is as far as I’ve come …

    (Video after the break, since it autoplays)

    (more…)

  • Sun Yang won the China Nationals 200 freestyle yesterday in impressive 1:44.99, new Chinese record and almost half a second faster than Yannick Agnel’s 1:45.47 French record and world’s best this year. He won 800 freestyle in 7:44.12 last Sunday and 400 freestyle in 3:41.48 on Tuesday, also clear world leading times this year. And now he goes for the 1500, maybe aiming for Grant Hackett’s 14:34.56 world record from 2001, which he with 14:35.56 in November 2010 was less than a second from taking. It should be possible, with him improving almost a second in the 400 freestyle on Tuesday, compared to last year.

    China Daily yesterday:

    “I’m fully confident of tomorrow’s 1500m free. My biggest advantage to Park Tae Hwan and Zhang Lin, who are two big names in this event, is my age. I’m younger and I believe I’ll be better and better in the future”

  • I admin, a lame maybe even misleading title, but not entirely wrong. Sir Richard Branson has announced he will make five dives to the deepest parts of the Earth’s ocean using the specially designed DeepFlight Challenger submersible, able to endure the pressure of 1,000 atmospheres at depth, utilizing unique wings to “fly” underwater. And it is even in collaboration with Google, using their mapping system to chronicle the dives. The first dive, to the Mariana Trench, is scheduled for late 2011. Via Geekosystem, boingboing and Laughing Squid.

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