Swimming Finals at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain
Former Member
The finals of the first day, show:
.) in the men 400 meter free final, Thorpe (Aus.) went 3:42.58 for #1, Hackett (Aus.) went 3:45.17 for #2, and Coman (Rom.) went 3:46.8x for #3;
Coman -who is my fellow countryman, and I was telling you about him for years-, defeated Rossolini (Ita.) of the 2000 Olympics fame, Keller (U.S.) and Carvin (U.S.);
.) in the women 400 meter free final, Simona Paduraru (Rom.) finished #7, with a fast time;
.) in the 4x100 men free relay, Russia won;
the fastest split was by Frenchman Frederic Bousquet at 47.03 -which is the second fastest split in history-, and fast splits (in the 47s) were recorded by Alex. Popov (Rus.) and Jason Lezak (U.S.);
.) in the 4x100 women free relay, U.S. won, anchored by an ace 53.xx from Jenny Thompson (U.S.).
He! he! he! :D ho! ho! ho!
I post this, ahead of www.swiminfo.com and www.swimnews.com who are sandbagging...
Parents
Former Member
Katy Sexton did great, I was impressed. it looks like the increase in training that Sweetenham imposed on the British team, ( 60,000 metres a week min ) is paying off as we are starting to show an ability to compete in the final 30 metres of a race. BTW Thorpe and Hackett train 120,000 metres per week.
Mark Foster and Zoe Baker have refused to commit to 60k/week which is why they can only enter 50m events.
I don't question Grahame Smiths work ethic, I am mad at his coach for leaving him with a sloppy technique. I saw David Davies in the 1500m ( our new hope! ) but he also has poor technique and will not get far. His coach ' David Haller ' coached some of my family in the Welsh squad in the 70's. He said to them " Don't worry about form just try to keep up with the workouts ". I don't think he has changed and the talent of David Davies will be wasted.
At this level every swimmer (except Foster & Baker ) is very well trained. But you can only swim up to the level of your Technique, and we in the UK still have not figured this out. The ethos is still "Train Hard" but you need to "Train Smart & Hard". The coaches are not challenging themselves to change and learn from the best and until they do, Gold medals will not appear.
Katy Sexton did great, I was impressed. it looks like the increase in training that Sweetenham imposed on the British team, ( 60,000 metres a week min ) is paying off as we are starting to show an ability to compete in the final 30 metres of a race. BTW Thorpe and Hackett train 120,000 metres per week.
Mark Foster and Zoe Baker have refused to commit to 60k/week which is why they can only enter 50m events.
I don't question Grahame Smiths work ethic, I am mad at his coach for leaving him with a sloppy technique. I saw David Davies in the 1500m ( our new hope! ) but he also has poor technique and will not get far. His coach ' David Haller ' coached some of my family in the Welsh squad in the 70's. He said to them " Don't worry about form just try to keep up with the workouts ". I don't think he has changed and the talent of David Davies will be wasted.
At this level every swimmer (except Foster & Baker ) is very well trained. But you can only swim up to the level of your Technique, and we in the UK still have not figured this out. The ethos is still "Train Hard" but you need to "Train Smart & Hard". The coaches are not challenging themselves to change and learn from the best and until they do, Gold medals will not appear.
