Does anyone know when or precisely where the Masters World Championships will be in 2004? I understand that Italy won the bid, but I'm wondering when the meet will be held compared to the Indy and Georgia National meets that year. Thanks.
Edward,
I think I can shed a little light on the QT's. It is not so much that the 04 QT's are fast; it is more a case of the 02 QT's were slow. Recall that the 02 Championships were in New Zealand. Because traveling to the meet was going to be much more of a limiting factor then than it is now to travel to Italy, there was less need to use QT's to keep the size of the meet down. I swapped emails with the New Zealand meet director at the time, and they were not terribly enthusiastic about having any QT's at all. Increasing the number of the participants was a bigger concern for them. So apperantly they got FINA to buy-off on QT's that were not much of a factor (and they still got hit with the post-Sept 11th drop off in travel).
If you want to compare apples to apples, take a look at the 00 Munich QT's. I think you will find the 04 QT's are only a bit faster. If you can't find them on the web, I wrote down the QT's for my age group and events, so you can at least compare the free and fly events for Mens 35-39.
BTW, congratulations on making the cut! Excellent work, and always gratifying when you are close. If you want to impress your friends and neighbors, just tell them you qualified for Masters World Championships, and watch their eyes get big. Even though we know what that really means, it sure sounds like the Olympics to them.
Matt
Edward,
I think I can shed a little light on the QT's. It is not so much that the 04 QT's are fast; it is more a case of the 02 QT's were slow. Recall that the 02 Championships were in New Zealand. Because traveling to the meet was going to be much more of a limiting factor then than it is now to travel to Italy, there was less need to use QT's to keep the size of the meet down. I swapped emails with the New Zealand meet director at the time, and they were not terribly enthusiastic about having any QT's at all. Increasing the number of the participants was a bigger concern for them. So apperantly they got FINA to buy-off on QT's that were not much of a factor (and they still got hit with the post-Sept 11th drop off in travel).
If you want to compare apples to apples, take a look at the 00 Munich QT's. I think you will find the 04 QT's are only a bit faster. If you can't find them on the web, I wrote down the QT's for my age group and events, so you can at least compare the free and fly events for Mens 35-39.
BTW, congratulations on making the cut! Excellent work, and always gratifying when you are close. If you want to impress your friends and neighbors, just tell them you qualified for Masters World Championships, and watch their eyes get big. Even though we know what that really means, it sure sounds like the Olympics to them.
Matt
