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...
Originally posted by Ion Beza
Rik Neethling (R.S.A.) is amazing:
in the 2000 Olympics he went 15:00.xx for the 1500 meter free, and now he swims the 100 free in 49.xx to qualify for the finals;
these days, Rik routinely goes 22.xx in 50 meter free like a true sprinter, not like a distance ace.
I agree this is amazing. I could see someone like Thorpe, whose best events have been the 200 and 400, being able to put together a good 1500, but I'd say it's much more impressive for someone whose best event is the 1500 to be able to sprint like this.
He must have gotten tired of swimming distance. I don't blame him, but most of us distance swimmers don't have the speed to swim anything under a 400! Nice job Ryk.
Originally posted by Ion Beza
Rik Neethling (R.S.A.) is amazing:
in the 2000 Olympics he went 15:00.xx for the 1500 meter free, and now he swims the 100 free in 49.xx to qualify for the finals;
these days, Rik routinely goes 22.xx in 50 meter free like a true sprinter, not like a distance ace.
I agree this is amazing. I could see someone like Thorpe, whose best events have been the 200 and 400, being able to put together a good 1500, but I'd say it's much more impressive for someone whose best event is the 1500 to be able to sprint like this.
He must have gotten tired of swimming distance. I don't blame him, but most of us distance swimmers don't have the speed to swim anything under a 400! Nice job Ryk.
