Many of the forum regulars seem to be going to Stanford, alas, others of us will not be there. Some of you that are going will access the internet while there, however briefly- why not share?
I have created this thread so you can report on the sights, sounds, swims, sunburns, socials etc. It matters not whether you be 'elite', 'newbie' or whatever, your impressions would be interesting to read. You could comment on great swims, technique, facilities, judging, the announcer, outrageous behavior of other forum participants, complaints, kudos- whatever. If you do, I at least would be grateful and if the thread garners much in the way of postings it could be a valuable archive for people to check for future Worlds. I lay down the guantlet...
Rambling thoughts/observations:
- Great meet set up, very well run, fun people, glad we came.
- Having said that......consensus among many I know that the pools are actually not all that "fast".....some incredible swims going down but overall lots of people swimming a bit slower. Bottom line is meets like this you come to "race" first, if you nail a good time in the process its gravy.
- At least 10 people have asked me who the Geek is......no one has offered money yet so I'm holding out!
- All the fuss about "national" teams and I see countries from all over the world sporting their colors; Venezuela, France, Italy, Mexico......everyone but the USA.....yes many are swimming for their "clubs" but FINA & USMS needs to take note....there is a LOT of interest in more country vs. country competition.
- For once and for all John & I ARE NOT related!!
- Somebody needs to get the message to swimmers that expensive "race" suits are to be raced in.....not warmed up in! These puppies are good for about 10-12 swims/3-4 meets before they lose most of their water repelancy!
- SwimmieAvsfan is really a misplaced Jersey girl living in Maryland who "loves" Baltimore and should change her name to swimmieDevilsfan!! :)
- How about Jacki the Arena team rep?? Shows up and smokes the 50-54 100 free with a 1:03?!
- Mark Gill shows up and swims at worlds and doesn't shave.....which would be about a 20lb weight drop if he did...go figure.....stick to the mic Mark!!
Originally posted by knelson
I swam a 9:24 in the 800 free. My goal was a 9:30, and I thought that was pretty ambitious. I got a little worried because I was ahead of my heat right from the beginning, but I just kept it up. I wasn't too far from lapping a couple guys. People probably figured I sandbagged my seed time, but I didn't, I swear :) Anyway, excellent way to get the meet started!
The facilities are impressive. Pretty incredible to put together a meet of this size but it looks like they're doing a great job, so thanks to Michael Moore and company.
My wife and I took advantage of my off day today to drive down to Monterey with a stop in Santa Cruz on the way back. Looking forward to my events tomorrow!
Great swim Kirk...I looked it up on Friday night. I was planning on heading up there to take some photo's of the regulars on here but my 7 year old daughter had her first swim meet this weekend so first things first! Anyhow, congrats on your 800 and good luck to all of you as things wrap up in Stanford.
I'm not there, but I'm following you all on-line (btw, thanks for putting the results on-line!!)
My compliments to Rich for improving his World Record!!
WORLD: W 53.50 7/3/2005 RICHARD SAEGER, USA
Meet: M 54.45 1996 V.GALAVTINE, FRA
Meet Qualifying 40-44: 1:11.00
Name Age Team Seed Finals
==================================================================
1 Saeger, Rich E 42 TYR-USA 54.00 53.45W
25.40 53.45 (28.05)
Originally posted by dcswimguy
There appear to be a lot of DQs for "Swimmer made use of aids"....does anyone know what these DQs are about? I can't imagine what they did (except use flippers or water wings :D )
wristwatches, i belive. cause i've not seen anyone wearing flippers or water wings, yet. :D
and to set the record straight, i'm definitely not from new jersey, and baltimore is most definitely an inferior city compared to washington, dc. oh, and paul smith is the evil smith, no matter what he tries to blame on poor john smith...
;)
I was marshalling in the Women's pool on Saturday and there was a DQ due to the swimmer wearing a watch. We were very careful to remind the swimmers through out the day they they could not wear watches so it seems odd that would be many more DQs due to that.
On Saturday, and on the Women's end there were DQs but there was not any one reason that stood out. They were also announcing DQs on the Men's end over the loudspeaker and I don't recall hearing that many.
Maybe the IM events have something to do with the DQs the past two days.
It is obvious to me that the pool work had a drastic effect on my swims in that pool. It must be the reason I added 0.3 to my 50 free time today.
Seriously - I haven't seen anything awry with the pools. The big touchpads almost completely cover each end of the pools and you can't see it the bare walls anyway.
There appear to be a lot of DQs for "Swimmer made use of aids"....does anyone know what these DQs are about? I can't imagine what they did (except use flippers or water wings :D )
