I saw very little of the competition at Worlds. For me it was a blur that started on 1 August and somewhat ended with the completion of the Open Water Swim. The only races that I remember were:
The fastest heat of the 200+ Mixed Free Relay was awsome. I wanted to see that heat as some of my friends from Walnut Creek were in it and then looked to see who was on the Florida and Colorado teams. All the swimmers on those teams were at least a top ten swimmer. On the last exchange, Colorado's 61 year old Rich Abrahams had a 1.36 lead over Florida's 47 year old Rowdy Gaines. Could Rowdy make up the difference? He had 14 years on him. It was a very fast last fifty, with Abrahams holding off the Olympian. The World record was broken by almost five seconds. The first four teams broke the record. All the teams in the heat broke the meet record.
I saw the meets executive director Anne Cribbs swim the breaststroke and freestyle. She had fun.
I saw Debbie Meyer swim the 200 freestyle and I saw Jacki Hirsty win one of her events from the outside lane.
I met the good Smith and the bad Smith near the top of the stairs one day. I still am not sure whether Paul is the good Smith or John is.
It looked like swimmers were have a great time in the tent village that sprang up on the west side of the aquatic center. There appeared to be a lot of trading of t-shirts and swim caps there.
On Saturday morning, I watched the USMS Fighting Flamingos win their match to secure the bronze medal, later that night there were four very good water polo games in the Avery Aquatic Center.
I did swim the 400 freestyle. If I would have swum it 39 seconds faster, I would have made the qualifying time. It did feel good to be in the water.
I would be interested in hearing any stories or vignettes about worlds and also if you were able to do well trading t-shirts or pins. For those who would like to see great pictures of the meet go to
http://www.isiphotos.com
I hope all who attended had a good time.
michael
Everyone that participated in putting on the World Masters Championship Meet gets a standing ovation from Oregon. You all did a fantastic job and it ran very well and smoothly. It was a giant undertaking and Michael and staff pulled it off. Thank you also for putting the Team, Individual and Relay totals up for us to see. Michael you did a GREAT job. The whole US should thank you since that was a 1st for the US in a long time.
Michael,
It was nice meeting you at the BBQ next to the Fighting Flamingoes! Great meet!!! Thank you for all of your hard work!!!
On T-shirt trading, I spent all week trying to find Frank Hesbacher of Germany. I had the pleasure of swimming against him in the 400 freestyle at the German National Championships in Berlin in April. We had a terrific race there and afterwards he told me that he would be at Worlds, swimming and playing water polo.
He was in the psych sheets for several races including the 400 free. However, he was a no show for his 100 and 200 free races. I suspected that he maybe did not come to the meet. I asked as many Germans as I could find if they knew Frank Hesbacher of Munich. Everyone said no. On Thursday, the day of the 400 free, I finally found a woman who knew him and told me he would be playing water polo at 5:00PM at the Palo Ato HS pool.
We found the pool and the 55+ year olds were playing. One team was Poseidan and the other was the Stanford team. No team from Munich. Darn. I then looked at the team roster and sure enough cap number 9 was Frank Hesbacher. Wasn't sure if it was him but after the game we approached him and with my wife's help (she knows German), determined that yes this was the right person. We talked for several minutes, exchanged addresses and of course t-shirts! Come to find out that Frank doesn't live in Munich, infact he lives quite a distance from there, but he was representing them in water polo.
It was great to see him again, exchange t-shirts and develop an international friendship. That's one of the nice things about a meet like this. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet and enjoy people from other cultures.
Thanks again Michael and all of the volunteers!!!!
Glenn:cool:
Highs:
There is nothing like an International event....nothing and this one went off far better for the amount of people attending than I would have imagined possible.
Seeing old teamates (30+ ex-UCSB swimmers in attendance) was awesome.
Getting a rematch with Ramon Volcon from Venezuela; my 100 fly nemisis freshman/sophmore years at UCSB.
Getting to swim on relays with two guys i've respected and admired for years; Rich Saeger & Greg Rhodenbaugh
Splitting 23.7 anchoring our free relay and 25.2 fly leg on the medley, times i haven't done since college....and setting WR's in both.....but being pissed that John's free split was faster than mine!
Hearing Mark Gill trash John during his IM....."and John Smith turns in first place at the 100 to attempt the breaststroke....which he learned this morning!"
Watching Vlad go 1:52 200 free.....scary!
Watching Fabio smoking cigarettes between events, reminded me if the Hungarian polo team we played in '80 who all smoked between games.....to funny.
Lows:
Walking back to get my gear behind the blocks after my last event (200 medley relay) and "kicking" one of the concrete blocks supporting the awnings...snapping a toe 90 degrees and having to sit down and rebreak it/reset it.....now having to hobble around for weeks....clumsy idiot!
Having Mr. Moore still confused about who the real evil smith is...come on!
People getting stuff stolen out of their boxes during their swims....scumbags!
Watching Mark Gill attempt to put on a fastskin suit over his "body sweater"...Mark, try clipping some of that fur next time the suits go on/off easier!
Not getting any time to catch up with Mr. Shirley and have him buy me that beer.....very hectic week!
Getting to swim on relays with two guys i've respected and admired for years; Rich Saeger & Greg Rhodenbaugh
originally posted by the Good (or is it Evil???) Smith
But wasn't there another guy on that relay as well? I mean it takes 4 to make a relay doesn't it?.....(I'm only j/k of course....we all know how much you and the other Evil Smith respect one another now!)
Newmastersswimmer
Hmmmm...... The evil one has a point. Gill, If you would have shaved down you would have been about 2 lbs lighter and a second faster per 50. Cripes sake man, you need to keep your body fur under control before you come to the meets. Your supposed to be the spokesman/announcer.... you have an image to maintain man. My dog and cats have less fur than you do. Dude if you had laser hair removal on your chest and legs you'd burn out the machine.
I do owe a special thanks to Dr. Ron for NOT showing up to for the 200m IM and potentially grinding me into a fine powder.
John Smith
Originally posted by Paul Smith
Walking back to get my gear behind the blocks after my last event (200 medley relay) and "kicking" one of the concrete blocks supporting the awnings...snapping a toe 90 degrees and having to sit down and rebreak it/reset it.....now having to hobble around for weeks....clumsy idiot!
I remember a similar incident in the long course nationals in Fort Lauderdale about five years ago. I was on the wrong starting block for the 200 ***, so I jumped off it onto the concrete, then climbed up on the correct one. I swam a great race - did a real good time (for me). Then when I got out of the pool I found that I couldn't walk on the heel. It was broken and I ended up non-weight-bearing with crutches for a month.
Originally posted by GoldrushJapan
One thought I had was that the announcer should have said "get out of the pool...warm up is over" in other languages, maybe Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Russian, and Japanese (there was a lot of over 60-year-olds from Japan whose English is terrible).....for example. I thought maybe the people just didnt understand that the announcer guy was asking them to get out.
Good suggetion. Maybe make a tape (mp3??) that could be run over the loudspeakers, for the Next Big Meet?
Or maybe they just pretended to not understand to get a longer warmup in.
Most definitely! Have enough English-speakers who don't understand the words "leave the pool, warm-up is over".
