It was fun to watch Susan von der Lippe swim the 100 fly in prelims. She moved up in the field roughly 30 places and finished 105 out of 137 to the best of my memory. I talked to her afterwards (she was hanging out at the motel pool with her kids and husband) and she thought it might have been close to her lifetime best (= her qualifying time) since she didn't swim much fly as a kid. Let's see what she can do today in the 100 ***.
Great to see world records in the first two final events. With all the records falling this year, I was not surprised to see two under the WR in the men's 400 IM - I'm betting this will happen more than once this year.
For me, the most exciting race was the 400 free. Great swims by the top four swimmers!
Also nice to see some swimmers move way up in the fields with some big time drops. Over 12,000 in the audience for both the prelims and finals yesterday. It took a while for the crowd to figure out how to cheer for people swimming breaststroke...
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Last session was another good one. Another AR for Dara and great swim for Jessica Hardy. I'm wondering if Hardy should just give up BR and concentrate on FR. She's going to be in 5 events in Beijing!
There was a very thoughtful column in the local newspaper by a male writer about Dara and the possibility of doping. His point of view was that his ideal image of the clean athlete has been destroyed by what has taken place in the last few years. Now, an older swimmer and mother may be the one to restore his hope. Of course he, like all of us, says there is no way to prove anything about Dara one way or the other but at least he can now hope again. I don't think John Smith has yet reached that point. I think I have.
In the 1500 final there were two interesting things that may not have been noted at home (at least one I'm certain of...). A bit after the mid-point of the race (2/3?), Vanderkaay did a look-up to find Jensen. It was obvious to us watching that he knew at that point that he could win the race. It was the fastest time in the world for 2008 to this point.
The second thing came right after the race. I was sitting next to Nick Graves who finished 14th in the 1500 and he was sent a text message by one of the Wolverine coaches. They were apparently stunned by the result.
This has been great. If the Trials are here again in 2012 I'm coming back (GLW&TCDR...apologies to Hank Williams...).
Last session was another good one. Another AR for Dara and great swim for Jessica Hardy. I'm wondering if Hardy should just give up BR and concentrate on FR. She's going to be in 5 events in Beijing!
There was a very thoughtful column in the local newspaper by a male writer about Dara and the possibility of doping. His point of view was that his ideal image of the clean athlete has been destroyed by what has taken place in the last few years. Now, an older swimmer and mother may be the one to restore his hope. Of course he, like all of us, says there is no way to prove anything about Dara one way or the other but at least he can now hope again. I don't think John Smith has yet reached that point. I think I have.
In the 1500 final there were two interesting things that may not have been noted at home (at least one I'm certain of...). A bit after the mid-point of the race (2/3?), Vanderkaay did a look-up to find Jensen. It was obvious to us watching that he knew at that point that he could win the race. It was the fastest time in the world for 2008 to this point.
The second thing came right after the race. I was sitting next to Nick Graves who finished 14th in the 1500 and he was sent a text message by one of the Wolverine coaches. They were apparently stunned by the result.
This has been great. If the Trials are here again in 2012 I'm coming back (GLW&TCDR...apologies to Hank Williams...).
