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
I think that Thorpe is "racing" for medals to simulate his attempt to swim four individual events at the Olympics. At this level, it's the medals that count not world records. Even the remarkable Mark Spitz had to learn how to swim so many events in that format, and he didn't swim semi-finals. 1968 was his learning experience. Perhaps Thorpe lost the 200 to Hoogie because he swam that 400 so fast in Sydney. There's still a lot of swimming left and we'll see how fast Thorpe goes over the next few days.
To my uneducated eye he looked pretty good in that 400 and I thought he could have gone much faster. We'll see if Thorpe can win the 100. It's not going to be easy.
Meanwhile, the best "all around" swimmer in my opinion (yes, I know that best all around is subjective) certainly made a pretty big answer to Talbot inflammatory remarks in the 200 fly. Phelps is scheduled to swim the 200 fly finals AND the 200 free relay. I hope the coaches let him lead off that relay. A new US record is a possiblity even after swimming a 200 fly.
If Thorpe can defeat Phelps in the 200 IM then I'll retract the statement above. Also if Thorpe can defeat Popov (the greatest freestyle sprinter in history in my book) and Hoogie in the 100 then I'll agree he's the greatest current freestyler.
I think that Thorpe is "racing" for medals to simulate his attempt to swim four individual events at the Olympics. At this level, it's the medals that count not world records. Even the remarkable Mark Spitz had to learn how to swim so many events in that format, and he didn't swim semi-finals. 1968 was his learning experience. Perhaps Thorpe lost the 200 to Hoogie because he swam that 400 so fast in Sydney. There's still a lot of swimming left and we'll see how fast Thorpe goes over the next few days.
To my uneducated eye he looked pretty good in that 400 and I thought he could have gone much faster. We'll see if Thorpe can win the 100. It's not going to be easy.
Meanwhile, the best "all around" swimmer in my opinion (yes, I know that best all around is subjective) certainly made a pretty big answer to Talbot inflammatory remarks in the 200 fly. Phelps is scheduled to swim the 200 fly finals AND the 200 free relay. I hope the coaches let him lead off that relay. A new US record is a possiblity even after swimming a 200 fly.
If Thorpe can defeat Phelps in the 200 IM then I'll retract the statement above. Also if Thorpe can defeat Popov (the greatest freestyle sprinter in history in my book) and Hoogie in the 100 then I'll agree he's the greatest current freestyler.
