I just received my tickets for 2 days of this years PanPacs in Victoria, B.C. Aug 17-20. I will be seeing heats & finals day 2:
100 free, 100 brst, 400 IM, 800free relay; heats & finals day 4:
200 IM, 50 free, 200 brst, w800 free, m1500 free, 400 medley relay. I am stoked to see Phelps et al, possible Japanese-American clash 100brst etc. This, I think, will be the signature international meet of the year (except Masters Worlds, of course) and I would urge anyone within reasonable travel distance to consider attending, as it is a great spectator pool & very fast.
I am disappointed though, that Amanda & her wedgie likely won't be there...
Jeff:
Thanks for the clarification of that link. As I was watching the clip I expected to see a lot closer race from lane 5. Then I realized that lane 5 was not Kosuke Kitajima because the guy didn't look like him and he congratualted Brendan on the swim and that would be a first. That must have been the prelim swim. Kitajimi was only .51 behind at the 100 and Hansen really pounded that last 100 to win by 2.37 seconds. I think Kitajimi went all out in the prelims just to make the final because he was the third seed behind his countrymen from Japan. In the finals he went .26 slower than his prelim swim and had nothing for the last 100.
I think the meet was great for the USA team. Phelps with 2 Individual World Records and Piersol and Hansen with one each makes this a better meet than Monteal was last year. And now we have a future star with Cullen Jones having a great 100 in the Relay and the win in the 50 Free at :21.85 and being less than .10 from Gary Hall Jr American Record. Speaking of Hall, I wonder why he didn't swim the 50 last night?
Ryan Lochte really showed everyone that he can swim Long Course this year and will challenge Michael in the future. Being .27 and then .24 from Phelps in the last two 200 IM races is the best he is ever done. Its too bad he didn't swim the 400 IM because the only event he had that day was the relay. Up until this past Nationals he has always been clobbered badly by Phelps in the 400 LCM IM. They have not gone head to head much but at 2004 Olympic Trials, Michael won by almost 10 seconds then this year at Santa Clara it was pretty much the same. Back in 2004, Ryan was the NCAA Champion and that year I believe he went 4:04 so his LC times didn't match up until this year. Last year he was 5th at Montreal in the 400 IM with a 2:13.67 and he still didn't match up to his SC times. The same with Backstroke in that he just smashed the short course records but has not had an impact in the International LCM formats. He has never challenged Piersol, or even Phelps or Markus Rogan. With what he did at NCAA's and SCM Worlds in China, people have been expecting a break thru and in the IM at least he is starting to seriously challenge Phelps and Czeh.
I think both Piersol and Hansen proved at this meet that they are definately the best and if they can both win in 2007 and 2008 then there is a good arguement that they could be the greatest in there strokes off all time. If this happens, Aaron Piersol will be undefeated for 7 years. He seems to do his best when he swims against Phelps in the 200 judging from WR at Long Beach and here. Cocker didn't have Phelps to push him so he didn't do his best time. His World Records in 2003, 2004, and 2005 have always been set swimming against Phelps.
The big suprise in the Women has to be Whitney Myers. Now Hoff has a challenger for the race to get the World Record. Myers had almost a 2 second drop and missed the American record by .06 and the World Record by .39 and I believe this WR will be gone at or before the 2007 World Championships. The big surprise for the men has to be Park. It will be interesting to see if he can keep improving as he gets older.
Jeff:
Thanks for the clarification of that link. As I was watching the clip I expected to see a lot closer race from lane 5. Then I realized that lane 5 was not Kosuke Kitajima because the guy didn't look like him and he congratualted Brendan on the swim and that would be a first. That must have been the prelim swim. Kitajimi was only .51 behind at the 100 and Hansen really pounded that last 100 to win by 2.37 seconds. I think Kitajimi went all out in the prelims just to make the final because he was the third seed behind his countrymen from Japan. In the finals he went .26 slower than his prelim swim and had nothing for the last 100.
I think the meet was great for the USA team. Phelps with 2 Individual World Records and Piersol and Hansen with one each makes this a better meet than Monteal was last year. And now we have a future star with Cullen Jones having a great 100 in the Relay and the win in the 50 Free at :21.85 and being less than .10 from Gary Hall Jr American Record. Speaking of Hall, I wonder why he didn't swim the 50 last night?
Ryan Lochte really showed everyone that he can swim Long Course this year and will challenge Michael in the future. Being .27 and then .24 from Phelps in the last two 200 IM races is the best he is ever done. Its too bad he didn't swim the 400 IM because the only event he had that day was the relay. Up until this past Nationals he has always been clobbered badly by Phelps in the 400 LCM IM. They have not gone head to head much but at 2004 Olympic Trials, Michael won by almost 10 seconds then this year at Santa Clara it was pretty much the same. Back in 2004, Ryan was the NCAA Champion and that year I believe he went 4:04 so his LC times didn't match up until this year. Last year he was 5th at Montreal in the 400 IM with a 2:13.67 and he still didn't match up to his SC times. The same with Backstroke in that he just smashed the short course records but has not had an impact in the International LCM formats. He has never challenged Piersol, or even Phelps or Markus Rogan. With what he did at NCAA's and SCM Worlds in China, people have been expecting a break thru and in the IM at least he is starting to seriously challenge Phelps and Czeh.
I think both Piersol and Hansen proved at this meet that they are definately the best and if they can both win in 2007 and 2008 then there is a good arguement that they could be the greatest in there strokes off all time. If this happens, Aaron Piersol will be undefeated for 7 years. He seems to do his best when he swims against Phelps in the 200 judging from WR at Long Beach and here. Cocker didn't have Phelps to push him so he didn't do his best time. His World Records in 2003, 2004, and 2005 have always been set swimming against Phelps.
The big suprise in the Women has to be Whitney Myers. Now Hoff has a challenger for the race to get the World Record. Myers had almost a 2 second drop and missed the American record by .06 and the World Record by .39 and I believe this WR will be gone at or before the 2007 World Championships. The big surprise for the men has to be Park. It will be interesting to see if he can keep improving as he gets older.
